On the Harmonious Development of China's Packaging Industry and Environmental Protection (Part Two)

The design of the first legal system

Only two places in the current law regulate the packaging and recycling of products. Article 20 of the “Clean Production Law”: The design of products and packaging should consider its impact on human health and the environment during the life cycle, and give priority to selecting programs that are non-toxic, harmless, easily degradable, or easy to recycle; enterprises should Reasonably package the product to reduce excessive use of packaging materials and packaging waste. Article 17 of the Law on Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution Caused by Solid Wastes: Products should be packaged that is easy to recycle, easy to dispose, or easily absorbed in the environment; product producers, sellers, and users should be able to recycle according to the relevant state regulations. Product packaging and containers are recycled. It can be seen from this that the provisions of our country's laws on product packaging are basically at the level of policy declarations and do not have specific operability. Although China has realized the necessity of simplifying packaging and the recycling of product packaging, only these two simple provisions cannot solve the real problems.

1, the rational definition of excessive packaging

A basic precondition for preventing over-packaging of products is the rational definition of packaging and excessive packaging. According to the "Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive" passed by the European Union Council in December 1994, the so-called packaging refers to "all the expendable resources used to dress, protect, control, transport, and display goods", including candy boxes and plastic bags. Labels that are tied directly to the product. Judging from the current practice of developed countries, whether or not product packaging is excessive is mainly stipulated in terms of packaging volume and/or packaging value. If it is clearly stated that the packaging position of the product shall not exceed 25% of the packaging volume, the packaging cost shall not exceed 15% of the product value. As stipulated in the “New Packaging Guidelines” of Japan, the empty space in the container should not exceed 20% of the container volume; the packaging cost should not exceed 15% of the product's selling price; the packaging should correctly display the value of the product so as not to generate Misleading. In line with the implementation of the guidelines, the Japan Department Stores Association also established a special committee. In addition, in Tokyo, Japan's "Product Packaging Gift Packaging Appropriate Details" also stipulates that: the gap in the packaging container in principle can not exceed 20% of the entire container; the gap between the goods and goods must be less than 1 cm; The gap between the inner walls of the packing box must be kept below 5 mm; the packing cost must be less than 15% of the price of the entire product. Of course, reserved capacity should be reserved for certain products that may heat and expand liquids when exposed to heat, such as the British government's requirement for 5% of the reserved capacity of liquids in metal drums. In many countries, the law stipulates that the package cannot be larger than 1/10 of the volume of the packaged material.

2, the legal nature of overpackaging

Judging from the attitude of developed countries to over-packaging products, most countries regard over-packaging of products as a fraudulent act against consumers. The regulations of the United States and Canada stipulate that as long as non-technical requirements and there are too many empty spaces in the packaging, the difference in height and volume of packaging and content is too large, and one of those cases that exaggerates the packaging without any reason is a deceptive package. Japan's packaging operations that have excessive packing space or packaging costs are considered to be fraudulent; and Germany’s behavior of exaggerating the actual content of its contents with inflated packaging is a fraudulent act. It is worth noting that over-packaging in Korea is considered an illegal act. If the manufacturer does not reduce the packing ratio and the number of layers of products according to government regulations, it will be fined up to 3 million won. In order to implement the drug packaging ratio and the number of layers, the Korean government has three major measures to regulate manufacturers: one is to check the packaging; the other is to mark the rewards; and the third is to deal with fines that violate the packaging standards. First of all, for goods suspected of being over-packed, the government may require the manufacturer or importer to go to a special inspection department for inspection. After receiving the notification, the manufacturer or importer must go to the inspection department at their own expense within 20 days and check the rate of packaging space, packaging materials, and the number of packaging layers on the surface of the package.

3, Restricting Legal Measures and System Restructuring of Product Overpackaging

As for the problem of excessive packaging of products, there are indeed no operative legal provisions that can be found in the current legal system. I am afraid this is not a problem that can be solved by a simple packaging method. Legs foot legislation. We do not lack legal resources. However, the legal puzzles that have arisen in the real world have once again illustrated the immaturity of previous legislation. The same issue stipulates that in different legislative documents, the fragmentation of the legal provisions to solve the problem is fragmented. The direct consequence is that it cannot be operated in practice. Therefore, this involves the reconfiguration of the relevant legal systems that restrict product packaging, and then put forward legal countermeasures.

Today, the developed countries in the world mostly adopt legislation to limit excessive packaging. For example, due to the deterioration of environmental resources and the global “green packaging” wave, European governments have formulated packaging laws. The first to promote the recycling of packaging materials in Germany developed a "recycling economy law", "packaging regulations", Denmark took the lead in the implementation of the "green tax" system, the Dutch "covenant packaging" France's "packaging regulations" and Belgium's "national ecological law" Many countries require manufacturers, importers, and retailers to take responsibility for the recycling and remanufacturing of packaging materials. There are three kinds of legal measures that specifically examine overseas over-packaging: First, standard control. That is, it sets limits for the volume of packaging, the gap between the packaging and the goods, the number of packaging layers, the ratio of the packaging cost to the value of the goods, such as Korea, Japan, and Canada. Second, economic measures control. For example, Belgium imposes a tax on non-paper packaging and packaging that does not meet the recycling requirements. In addition, the use of garbage metering fees to guide consumers to choose simple packaging, such as the Netherlands third, increase producer responsibility. It is stipulated that commodity producers are responsible for the recovery of commodity packaging, and usually a deposit system can be used to entrust relevant commercial organizations to recycle packaging. In order to facilitate recycling, producers will actively choose to use packaging materials that are easy to recycle, such as Germany, France and other countries.

Article 27 of the "Cleaner Production Promotion Law of the People's Republic of China" adopted at the 28th meeting of the Standing Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress on June 29, 2002 stipulated: "Production and sales are included in compulsory recovery. Enterprises of the catalogue's products and packaging must recycle the products and packaging after the products are scrapped and the packaging is in use, and the catalogue and specific recovery measures for the compulsory recycling of products and packaging are formulated by the competent economic and trade administrative department of the State Council. The state implements economic measures conducive to recycling for the products and packaging included in the compulsory recycling catalogue; the economic and trade administrative department of the local people's government at or above the county level shall regularly inspect the implementation of compulsory recycling products and packaging, and promptly The results of the inspection shall be announced. The specific measures shall be formulated by the competent department of economic and trade administration under the State Council." In order to implement the requirements of Article 27 above, the National People's Congress and the CPPCC proposed a proposal for this issue on February 13, 2003. Released an official letter to the original China Packaging Technology Association and entrusted it with drafting System recovery catalog and management approach "packaging materials. This made China's first laws and regulations involving packaging enter the substantive development process. In the field of medicine, China's State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) issued 34 national standards for packaging materials and containers for pharmaceuticals and 25 criteria for testing methods for packaging materials for stringed instruments in 2002 and 2003, and issued the “About strengthening Chinese medicine. The "Notice for Supervision and Management of Decoction Packaging" aims to strengthen the supervision of packaging materials and packaging containers that are in direct contact with drugs. At present, there are about 1,500 pharmaceutical packaging companies in China with an annual production value of about 15 billion yuan. However, the quality of pharmaceutical packaging materials and packaging varieties are significantly lower than the international level. China's "Planning Outline for the 10th Five-year Plan for Pharmaceutical Packaging Industry" has put environmental protection, high-performance OTC packaging, high-quality control and lightweight molded bottles, butyl rubber plugs, high-quality aluminum-plastic composite covers, green capsules, and high-quality bubble caps. As the development focus of China's pharmaceutical packaging in the future.

In terms of tobacco, on November 10, 2003, the Chinese government signed the World Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, a long-term international convention on tobacco control, at the United Nations Headquarters and became the 77th signatory country of the Convention. The provisions of the “Packaging and labelling of tobacco products” of the Convention will have a substantial impact on China’s current tobacco packaging. Chinese tobacco companies will conduct a comprehensive and thorough “dress-up” campaign before November 10, 2006. To this end, Chinese tobacco companies now have a comprehensive and thorough "dress-up" campaign. To this end, Chinese tobacco companies are actively seeking effective countermeasures in tobacco package design, packaging materials, and printing processes. At the same time, the National Tobacco Monopoly Bureau, the highest regulatory body of China's tobacco, is also actively promoting environmentally friendly tobacco in the tobacco industry. Packaging materials, some of which are relatively mature green tobacco packaging materials such as vacuum aluminum coated cardboard, are being recognized by more and more tobacco companies.

At the end of 2004, in order to implement the scientific concept of development proposed by the Central Government, and to establish a conservation-oriented society and a socialist harmonious society, the National Development and Reform Commission issued a study to the China Packaging Federation on adapting to the needs of circular economy development and vigorously developing the green packaging industry. The topics provide scientific basis for formulating measures to promote the sustained, rapid, healthy and coordinated development of China's packaging industry. After preliminary investigations by experts, the members of the research team gathered in Xiamen in early April 2005 and fully discussed various aspects of the topic, drafted the overall framework of the research report, and clarified the contents that needed further investigation and division of work to make the subject The study has entered a stage of in-depth exploration.

Second technical means

The packaging industry is an industry with high-tech content, and its development has to rely on the application of advanced science and technology. Industrial advanced countries and some international organizations have been trying to establish some international environmental standards to regulate the environment of each country. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to meet this need after many meetings and voting by member states, in 1997 formulated and promulgated the ISO14000 series of environmental management standards, it has an important impact on the packaging industry.

The content of green packaging With the advancement of science and technology, the development of packaging will also have new connotations. For example, the term degradable plastics is derived from the special concept of plastic polymer structures, and it is now more popular to promote the use of more "Ecoplatics". Because the traditional sustainable development of oil-based plastics is hampered by the supply of oil, the economic development has deepened the dependence on oil, and the development of the economy has led to more waste plastics forming white pollution. The environmental protection needs to use fully biodegradable ecological materials. Fully biodegradable ecological material technology is currently improving. In accordance with China’s current economic development and its corresponding rate of oil consumption, China’s oil storage will be exhausted in about 16 years. China’s oil supply will increasingly depend on imports, and it has now become the second largest oil importing country, turbulent. The situation in the Middle East has seriously affected the supply of oil. At present, the annual consumption of plastics in China has exceeded 25 million tons, of which packaging accounts for about 6 million tons, and the proportion in the garbage is increasing day by day and it is difficult to handle. Even if half of the plastics are required to be completely degraded, the annual demand will reach 1,250 tons, while in China, less than 100,000 tons of fully degradable ecological plastics are used as raw materials, and the better-performing polylactic acid ecological plastic has not yet been industrialized. The gap is big. Polylactic acid is currently recognized as an ecological plastic that can replace traditional plastics such as PE to a considerable extent, because it can form the ecological cycle of ecoplastics shown in the ecological cycle of cornstarch ecoplastics in Figure 1. However, there are still some limitations in the cost and packaging applications of polylactic acid and other ecological plastics.

1, emphasis on the green design of the packaging

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