Green packaging and design

With the development of economy and the improvement of people's consumption level, the packaging industry has formed a complete industrial system and is moving forward at an alarming rate. In 2000, the output value of China's packaging industry has increased to more than 220 billion yuan. It is estimated that by 2005, the total value of the packaging industry in the country could reach 320 billion yuan. According to relevant information, the total industrial output value of the global packaging industry has reached 6,000 to 700 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for about 2% of the world's GDP. The packaging industry has ranked among the top ten industries in the world. Therefore, the packaging of products has become the life of people. An important part of world trade exchanges is an indispensable part. However, with the rapid development of various packaging industries, a large number of packaging waste generated, and the pollution of packaging materials and packaging production processes have become more and more prominent. Therefore, green packaging and its design that require changes to the current situation have emerged. The green packaging movement is rapidly expanding from developed countries to the world.

1 Green packaging

Green packaging refers to the fact that during the entire life cycle of product packaging, it can not only meet the functional requirements of packaging economically, but also does not cause pollution to the ecological environment, does not cause any harm to human health, and can be recycled and reused to meet the requirements of sustainable development. Packaging material. In addition to the main functions of traditional packaging such as product protection, costumes and distribution, information transmission, and promotional value-added, green packaging emphasizes environmental coordination, and current environmental coordination has gradually become a major indicator of good performance in measuring packaging performance. Reduced packaging, Reuse, and Recycling are common 3R principles. In addition, packaging materials are also required to be non-toxic and harmless to humans and organisms, and to be degradable after disposal.

2. Green Packaging International Regulations

After 1978, industrialized countries in Europe developed green economy and started to promote the “green sign” of product packaging in international trade to protect the environment and develop the green packaging industry. Any person who bears the "green mark" indicates that the product packaging meets the requirements of environmental protection from production to use and recycling. A product package can only obtain a “pass” to enter the country’s market if it has obtained a country’s environmental label. Since 1986, some EU countries have successively promulgated relevant green regulations such as the “Packaging Waste Disposal Law”, and strictly prohibit the entry of packages that do not meet environmental requirements. In 1991, the European Union issued the "Packaging/Packaging Waste Directive."

In June 1992, the United Nations held the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 116 heads of state and more than 8,000 representatives from 172 countries participated in the United Nations. In the Rio Declaration, a strategy for sustainable development was clearly put forward. As a result, the green packaging legislation has entered a new phase of development that emphasizes harmonious development with the environment and adapts to the ecological environment.

After the “Rio Declaration”, in December 1994, the European Union issued a directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste Management, Directive 94/62/EC, on the environment and development requirements for imported product packaging. The country implements decrees as required. From January 1, 1998, only packaged goods that meet all major requirements can be sold on the EU market. The directive also includes the recycling and reuse of packaging waste. Producers and sellers are responsible for the environmental impact of packaging waste, and achieve effective recycling and pollution prevention of packaging waste. The implementation of this decree puts forward clearer and more stringent requirements for how manufacturers in various countries deal with products and packaging.

Since January 1996, the International Organization for Standardization ISO has successively introduced a series of international standards such as "ISO14001 Environment System", "ISO14014 Environmental Label", "ISO14026 Life Cycle Assessment", and so on, to develop a green economy, standardize packaging, and promote the development of green packaging. It has played a very positive role. After several years of practice, companies all over the world have begun to carefully consider packaging design and material selection, and strive to increase the environmental performance, reduce waste, and reduce packaging costs while satisfying the protection, advertising, and descriptive nature of packaging. At the same time, the World Trade Organization (WTO), Greenpeace International (GP), the International Brand Federation (IBF), local non-governmental environmental NGOs, etc. also emphasized environmental and development, and recycling of waste products/packaging materials. Utilization of renewable resources.
In February 2003, the European Union announced the "Regulations on the Prohibition of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment" issued by the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers of the European Union. instruction). The directive requires that the sale of electrical and electronic equipment containing lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated diphenyl ether, and polybrominated biphenyls, and six kinds of hazardous substances be prohibited in the EU market from July 1, 2006. The six types of harmful substances in the article were restricted.

3 green packaging and design principles <br> <br> good environmental compatibility green packaging has been widely recognized by society, but how can we achieve green packaging? Reasonable packaging structure design is an important prerequisite and condition for the implementation of green packaging, and it plays a key role in the whole life cycle environmental impact of packaging. In practical applications, the following aspects can be considered:

3.1. Through rational packaging structure design, the rigidity and strength of the package are improved, and materials are saved.
The basic function of packaging is to achieve the protection of the product during transportation. Therefore, the structure of the package should avoid adverse effects on the product structure and ensure that the package has sufficient rigidity and strength. Reasonable packaging structure design can not only protect the product, but also reduce the requirement for secondary packaging and transportation packaging and reduce the use of packaging materials due to the increase in packaging strength and stiffness. For example, in the box-shaped thin-walled container, in order to prevent deformation of the container edge, a structure in which the wall thickness of the container is locally increased may be used to improve the rigidity of the container edge; in order to reduce the warpage of the container sidewall, a corrugated structure may be used. In order to prevent or reduce the deformation of the bottom of the container, the shape of the flat plate may be changed to a spherical or arched surface. With the above structure, the wall thickness can be reduced and the material can be saved.
DEC's research shows that increasing the internal structural strength of its products can reduce 54% of packaging materials and reduce packaging costs by 62%.

3.2. Save material by designing a reasonable package shape.

The design of the package form depends on the form of the packaged product, the product transport method and other factors. The form and structure of the package are mutually restricted, and the different package shapes correspond to different material utilization rates. A reasonable shape can effectively reduce The use of materials, these shapes mainly include spherical, cubic and cylindrical.

The surface area of ​​the spherical body is the smallest with the same volume of various geometric bodies. In other words, the sphere is the best choice when we need to wrap the most items with minimal surface material. According to this principle, the geometric package that is first considered in the packaging design should be a sphere, which can save raw materials to the maximum extent. Examples of spheres used in merchandise packaging are numerous, such as spherical wine bottles, perfume bottles, and the like.

Square packages have mainly rectangular and cuboidal shapes, and this also has the problem of the smallest surface area. In the case of the same volume, the surface area of ​​the cuboid is larger than the surface area of ​​the cube, which means that in the square packaging structure, the cube structure should be the first choice. For example, taking cigarette packaging as an example, its packaging is a typical square package. This ten-box cigarette package has become commonplace, but after careful analysis, we can find improvements. This kind of cigarette packaging has been used for decades. 27.5 cm in length and 5 cm in width. If the length is reduced to 12.5 cm and the width is 11 cm (height is 9 cm), then the surface area of ​​the packaging material needs to be 349 cm2, and the area of ​​packaging material required for the original packaging design is 430 In cm2, the area difference between the two is 81 cm2. Compared with the two, the improved package will save 23.2% of the material, and the economic benefit is very obvious.

Since the spherical packaging is not easy to place during storage and transportation, in many occasions, the cylindrical packaging structure similar to the spherical one becomes a compromise choice, such as various oil drums, paint buckets, beverage cans, and the like. The factors that determine the consumption of cylindrical packaging materials are the radius and height of the cylinder. Calculations show that when the height of a cylinder is 2 times the radius, its surface area is minimal, that is, when the height of the cylinder is equal to the diameter, the material is saved the most.

3.3 Starting from material optimization and material saving

Plate blanking is a practical problem for many companies. A reasonable set of different specifications and different numbers of parts can improve material utilization. In the process of cutting and separating large blocks of packaging materials into small pieces of material, different combinations of materials make use of the process, and the results are quite different. This is actually the best problem of blanking. A reasonable sheet blanking combination can achieve maximum material utilization.

In the actual production, there are tens of thousands of sorts of combinations for different specifications of parts. It is often time-consuming and labor-intensive to find the best material-saving scheme manually. With the development of computer hardware and software technology, it has become effective. Software to solve the problem of reasonable set of various sheet materials. This type of software is easy to operate. Simply input the raw material specifications and the size and quantity of various parts, you can get an optimized feeding plan, and then display and print out the process plan list and the complete set of blanking process drawings.

3.4. Avoid excessive packaging. Over packaging refers to packaging that exceeds the functional requirements of the product packaging. The over-packing of deluxe mooncakes, health supplements, and certain medicines, as well as deceptive packaging, is typically overpackaging. At present, this over-packaging phenomenon is very serious in the gifts, health care products and food industries. This waste of serious luxury packaging is opposed to the green packaging. In order to avoid over-packaging, we can start with the following measures: .

(1) Reduce the number of packages used. Save resources on the premise of meeting the packaging function. The method can be summarized as two kinds, that is, controlling the number of product packaging containers and using batch packaging instead of individual packaging.

Cosmetics and toothpaste can be displayed directly on the shelf by the use of an enlarged bottle cap, which eliminates the need for outside paper shell packaging, which is an example of the number of control unit product packaging containers. In addition, it is also possible to appropriately increase the additional wall layers of the packaging container so as to avoid the use of fillers; the use of large containers instead of small containers makes it possible to reduce the consumption of the packaging when packaging the same number of articles.

The use of bulk packaging instead of individual packaging, or the direct delivery of goods to the use site is another way to reduce the amount of packaging used. Bulk cement is a typical example. According to statistics, for every 10,000 tons of bulk cement sold, 60 tons of bag paper can be saved, 330 cubic meters of wood for papermaking, 70,000 tons of electricity, 111.5 tons of coal, and 500 tons of cement loss. The overall economic benefits are very significant.

(2) Minimize the use of materials. To minimize the use of materials while meeting general packaging functions and appearance requirements. The example of cigarette packaging has given persuasive and specific data. There are many benefits to reducing the use of materials. The first and most direct is to reduce the cost of raw materials and processing and manufacturing costs, and to reduce the cost of handling and transportation. It further reduces the cost of recycling and disposal after packaging is discarded. Many foods are outside the exquisite packaging box. A layer of plastic film is added outside the packaging box. From the perspective of green packaging, this film is not necessary to complete the packaging function of the product, and after opening the packaging, this layer The plastic film became rubbish and was thrown away.

(3) Choose suitable quality packaging materials. Under the conditions that meet the general packaging function and appearance requirements, you should avoid using unnecessary high-quality packaging materials and abandon the luxury. For example, in the case where the corrugated board satisfies the requirements, the use of high-grade paperboard such as plain cardboard to make the outer-packed cardboard box is avoided as much as possible. Because the quality and properties of paper have a lot to do with raw materials, high-quality paper uses wood with long fibers, few heterocells, and low ash content as the pulp material, while low-quality paper uses straw or waste paper as the raw material for pulp. of.