On Overpacking and Environment

According to a survey conducted by the National People's Congress Environment and Resources Protection Commission in 2004, at present, China's packaging waste accounts for more than 10% of urban household garbage. And its volume should constitute more than 30% of household garbage. This shows that the amount of packaging waste is huge. Of these packaging wastes, a large part is caused by luxury and excessive packaging, which puts great pressure on the environment. So what is over-packaging? What kind of harm does overpackaging cause to the environment? What solutions can be considered?

First, the definition of excessive packaging and the formation of reasons

Excessive packaging refers to the over-investment in the packaging of products driven by a momentary economic interest, resulting in excessive packaging of the product. Overpacking is a reflection of the imbalance between the packaging value and the value of the packaged product. This is due to the excessive emphasis and blind pursuit of the added value of the packaging and the halo effect it brings. Its manifestations are as follows: 1 too many layers; 2 materials are inappropriate; (structure design is overdone; 4 surface decoration is excessive; (packaging excess; (packaging costs are too high; 7 packaging with high-end daily necessities. There are many reasons Lead to over-packaging, and two important reasons are market competition and consumer attitudes.

First talk about market competition. Prior to the reform and opening up, due to the poor quality of packaging in China, China's export commodities suffered from "first-class products, second-class packaging, and third-class prices", causing huge economic losses to Chinese enterprises. After the reform and opening up, economic development and the improvement of the people’s living standards require that all goods be packaged first. Then under the influence of fierce competition in the commodity market, companies are using various methods to attract consumers in order to pursue higher profits. There has been an imbalance in the value of packaging and content. Because some companies realize that packaging is the “outerwear” of the company’s products, they increasingly value the status of the “promotion” function in packaging, and even exaggerate this function too much. Especially now, the consumption mode of supermarkets has become mainstream, and it is replacing traditional sales methods step by step. In order to seize the market, merchants use various means to put their products on a virtual “outwear” to attract consumers.

In addition, the concept of consumption is also an important cause of excessive packaging. Because packaging has a short history of development in China, people's understanding of it is only on the surface, and it cannot make correct judgments on the problems it produces. Therefore, there is no room for excessive packaging to survive. Some consumers are often attracted by the gorgeous appearance of the goods, ignoring the value of the goods themselves and failing to make a correct judgment on the price of the goods. Let some illegal businesses have an opportunity. Because of this, designers have to design more packaging with true "value". Guide consumers to establish a good and correct consumption concept, so that consumers have the ability to appreciate and distinguish packaging. On the contrary, some packages on the market now confuse consumers with “imitation” or “plagiarism”, not only failing to properly perform the function of packaging, but also blindly exaggerating the promotional functions of the packaging and completely ignoring the basic functions of packaging and protection products. Make consumers unable to establish the correct concept of consumption, have a wrong understanding of the packaging, so that packaging in a commodity in an awkward position.

Excessive packaging hazards to the environment

(I) Increase environmental pollution

According to statistics from the sanitation department: Of the nearly 3 million tons of garbage produced each year in Beijing, the packaging of various commodities is about 830,000 tons, of which 600,000 tons are over-packaging items that can be reduced. At present, China's commodity packaging waste accounts for more than 70% of municipal solid waste. Obviously, packaging waste has become a non-negligible environmental issue. Most of the materials used for packaging are special materials. For example, a large amount of foam is now used as a buffer plastic, and it is difficult to dispose of, but as a packaging material, it has a good function, and other materials are often difficult to replace.

These packaging plastics place great pressure on the environment. Long-term stacking of plastic waste has given rats, mosquitoes, and bacteria and bacteria a breeding ground, threatening human health. Plastics are light in weight and large in size. Landfills use large amounts of land resources, pollute groundwater, and burn a variety of chemical toxic gases, disrupting the body's liver function, damaging nerves, and inducing cancer.

Excessive packaging of environmental pollution has disrupted the harmonious relationship between man and nature. Because the rapid development of modern industry has left an irreparable scar on the human living environment, the environmental crisis has become imminent, and protecting its own living space has become a rising voice of human beings. Excessive packaging, one-sided pursuit of the added value of packaging, resulting in the use of packaging materials, some of the environmental pollution. Although some of them can be recycled, they increase the cost of recycling, and cause secondary pollution to the environment during the recycling process, which is extremely unfavorable for environmental protection. For example, although paper products can be recycled, papermaking requires a large amount of wood and the process of paper making and recycling has great environmental pollution. Although plastic products can be recycled, due to the large number of workshops, the price is very low, so it is economical. From a point of view, there may not be much recycling value, so people often throw it around and pollute the environment. China's waste disposal technologies are relatively backward, and most of them are pulled into the suburbs to bury and pile things up. Some even do not carry out simple treatment, which not only pollutes groundwater sources, but also affects the beauty and the lives of nearby residents.

(b) To cause excessive waste of resources and waste of resources. The cartons used for packaging are taken from trees, which consume large amounts of metal, glass, paper and plastic each year for packaging food. According to statistics, the average annual production of shirts is 1.2 billion pieces, and the amount of paper used in the box is 240,000 tons, which is equivalent to cutting off 1.68 million thick trees. The carton used for packaging shirts is just a drop in the ocean. If you count the amount of paper used for packaging and the trees to be felled, this is undoubtedly an astonishing figure. In the United States, 25 aluminum is used to make cans, and more than half of them are thrown away as garbage. Materials used for packaging use 40% paper in Germany and nearly 25 plastics in the United States. The production of packaging materials not only consumes a lot of resources, but also causes great pollution and damage to the environment.

Excessive packaging, resulting in packaging that was not actually used, was eventually thrown into the bin, becoming an ever-increasing amount of household waste, which was difficult to handle and wasted resources. At present, the most effective treatment method for domestic garbage is to reduce, recycle, and recycle. Among them, reduction is at the top of governance. Only reducing the amount of garbage at the source can reduce the burden of subsequent governance. The reduction is undoubtedly an important part of opposing excessive packaging. $Page break $

Third, analyze the solution

(a) Formulate relevant laws. Limiting the excessive packaging and excessive packaging, and the upsizing of packaging materials not only cause serious waste of resources and pollute the environment, but also, to a certain extent, disguised fraud and mislead consumers. Therefore, restricting the proliferation of over-packaging and deceptive packaging from the source, and correctly introducing packaging design and production into the legal track become a matter of urgency.

In many foreign countries, laws and regulations have been formulated to limit the amount of system packaging and encourage the development of green packaging. For example, Germany, which first advocated the recycling of packaging materials, has formulated the “Circular Economy Law”. Denmark has taken the lead in implementing the “Green Tax” system. Many countries require manufacturers, importers, and retailers to take responsibility for recycling and remanufacturing packaging materials. Excessive packaging in Korea is an illegal act. In order to implement this issue, the Korean government should check the packaging of the goods, award streamlined packaging, impose fines on over-packaged goods, and impose a fine of up to 300 if manufacturers do not package the products in accordance with government regulations. Million won.

In recent years, with the increasing awareness of environmental protection and the deepening of the concept of sustainable development, the hazards of overpacking have been increasingly valued by the people of the country. The government has also stepped up legislative work in this area. However, so far, China's restrictions on overpacking still remain on the qualitative analysis, leading to the implementation of a unified scale and standards. The over-packing we are talking about now is only referring to the design, process, and production process of product packaging in terms of design, structure, and decoration. We do not excessively blindly pursue the high-grade packaging design and decoration according to the requirements of the characteristics of the product. Exaggerating the various functions of packaging, particularly promotion functions, has led to a surge in packaging costs that has even doubled over the value of the contents of the packaging, resulting in an imbalance in the value of packaging and content, without quantitative analysis of excessive packaging. No strict parameters have been set. Therefore, to strengthen legislative work, we can quantify excessive packaging from the following aspects: First, we must formulate professional standards for rationalized packaging, determine various indicators, and can stipulate in terms of structure, materials, decoration, functions, and values; It is to establish a standard for defining overpackaging, and it can also be defined in terms of structure, materials, decoration, function, and value. Excessive standards on any one side will lead to over-packaging. Third, penalties for overpacking should be established to limit excessive Packaging behavior.

In this regard. The foreign experience is worth learning from. For example, Japan has developed a "New Packaging Guidelines," which states that: As far as possible to reduce the volume of packaging containers, the empty space in the container should not exceed 20 inches of the container volume; packaging costs should not exceed the product selling price of l5. In addition, Tokyo, Japan, "Provisions for Appropriate Packaging of Gift Boxes" also stipulates: The gap in the packaging container should not exceed 20% of the entire container in principle; the gap between the product and the commodity must be below 10mm; the gap between the product and the inner wall of the packaging box Must be kept below 5mm; packaging costs must be 15% of the entire product price; The Australian government stipulates that the empty space for various packages must not exceed 25% of the package volume. The United States, Canada, Germany, South Korea and the United Kingdom all have similar regulations.

(2) Promote the green packaging and the concept of appropriate packaging The green packaging, which can also be called friends of the environment or ecological packaging, means that it does not cause pollution to the ecological environment, does not cause any harm to human health, can be recycled and recycled, and can promote sustainable development. Development of packaging. Green packaging is based on the premise that it does not pollute the environment and protect human health. It takes the full use of renewable resources and protects the ecological environment as its development direction. Green packaging should comply with the “4 R+1 D” guidelines, namely Red UCE: Reduce the amount of packaging materials used and oppose over-packaging; ReUS e: Reusable; RecyC]e: Recyclable; RecoVe r: Available packaging waste Access to energy or fuel; Deg rad ab]e: Degradable corrosion, which helps to eliminate white pollution. As can be seen from the above criteria, green packaging is conducive to saving resources and reducing pollution.

In addition, it is necessary to promote the concept of moderate packaging. The so-called moderate packaging should not only prevent the phenomena of "gold and jade, and be riddled with blunders," but should also prevent the "gold and jade from being defeated," and the behavior of being defeated. In the packaging design of goods, the moderation should not only focus on the entire life cycle of the packaging materials and products, but also include the possible harm to the environment during the manufacturing and use of packaging materials and products, and the recycling of packaging waste. Ease and so on. To achieve a moderate degree of packaging is to ensure that the packaging materials used are as small as possible in order to ensure the economical efficiency of packaging costs, while satisfying the effective protection function of the products. From this point of view, any form of over-packaging and over-weakening are all required to be avoided in the package design.

The so-called “moderation” means that it should fully embody the various functions of packaging, take a serious and responsible approach to consumers, protect the products from damage, and enable consumers to use the principle of products smoothly, and at the same time prevent the enterprises and consumers from accepting the consequences. Necessary economic losses. Therefore, for products in different industries, proper packaging standards should be specified. While protecting the product and satisfying the basic functions of its own packaging, it does not waste resources and does not cause environmental pollution. General commodity packaging should account for the cost of 1 0 - 1