On green packaging in international trade and Chin

On green packaging in international trade and China's Countermeasures

Abstract: with the continuous expansion of the scale of international trade and the continuous progress of science and technology, the international requirements for commodity packaging are becoming more and more strict, and developed countries increasingly emphasize green packaging and green packaging system. For various reasons, China is still facing many difficulties in implementing strict green packaging, which requires the joint participation of the government, enterprises and consumers to establish China's green packaging system as soon as possible to meet the challenges of green trade barriers

key words: green packaging, green barriers, environmental trade

packaging is an important part of products. It is not only the protection and barrier layer of products, but also the basis of product measurement. It is against the right and wrong or shows the quality of interior packaging. Therefore, commodity packaging has always been valued in international trade. Due to the further deterioration of the ecological balance and the enhancement of people's awareness of environmental protection, in order to protect human health and safety and prevent damage to the target environment and resources due to mutual trade, the international requirements for packaging are becoming more and more strict, and many countries have formulated corresponding laws and regulations. Some countries have made harsh and cumbersome regulations on the packaging of goods, and importers must comply with these regulations, otherwise they are not allowed to import or sell in the market. At the same time, it has also become a requirement of the WTO, with more and more emphasis on green packaging

I. The Rise and main contents of green packaging

with the continuous expansion of the scale of international commodity exchange and the continuous progress of science and technology, people have a deeper understanding of the serious impact of commodity packaging on the ecological environment. The negative impact of packaging on the environment is mainly caused by packaging materials, packaging waste and packaging container structure. Traditional natural packaging materials, such as wood and cotton, may bring borers, red lacewings, nematodes, etc., which are harmful to the ecological environment and economic crops, harm local forests and crops, and may also bring all kinds of bacteria, affecting the safety of people and livestock. Newly developed chemical synthetic materials, such as PVC plastic, are difficult to degrade naturally, and will pollute the atmosphere when burned as waste; In the process of producing foaming liner plastic, the use of CFCs foaming agent will destroy the ozone layer and endanger human life safety; A large number of packaging wastes have seriously polluted the environment, and the garbage produced has become a major public hazard in society. The unreasonable structure of packaging containers will endanger the safety and health of users or consumers, and some will cause damage to the environment. In 1987, the United Nations Commission on environment and development called for the use of green packaging in "China's common future". Countries have also taken many environmental protection measures for green packaging, which led to the rise of green packaging. Since the 1990s, most countries have protected the ecological environment and human health and safety by implementing laws, regulations and standards. The green requirements for packaging have adapted to this trend and have a good impact on the development of the world economy: (1) reduce the amount of packaging waste; (2) Protect the ecological environment; (3) Reduce or even eliminate the cross impact of packaging and filling materials on the environment and human health and safety among trading partner countries; (4) Improve the market competitiveness of the products of exporting countries; (5) It meets the trade requirements of today's world

green packaging generally refers to packaging that is harmless to ecological environment protection and human health, saves resources and energy, can be reused or recycled, and can promote sustainable development. In other words, the whole process of packaging products from the selection of raw materials to the manufacturing, use, recycling and recycling of products should meet the requirements of ecological environment protection. Developed countries have put forward the "4r+1d" principle. 4R refers to: reduce (that is, minimize the use of packaging materials under the conditions of meeting all functions of packaging),, reuse (reusable and effectively utilized) Recycle (renewable products, i.e. recycling), recover (incineration does not pollute the gas and energy regeneration); 1D refers to degradable (degradable, without environmental pollution). On this basis, with the progress of science, green packaging may have more connotations. In general, green packaging should at least meet the following conditions: (1) no negative impact on human health and animal and plant safety; (2) Under the condition of packaging function, the materials should be the most economical and the packaging waste should be the least; (3) Packaging can be recycled or packaging materials can be recycled; (4) Packaging materials that cannot be recycled or recycled should meet the following requirements: when packaging waste is burned, it can generate new energy or no toxic gas, resulting in secondary pollution; (5) Packaging materials can degrade automatically after use, and can decay and decompose automatically after burial

II. Requirements for green packaging in international trade

at present, the green packaging system has become one of the main contents of setting green standards in developed countries internationally. The green packaging system requires imported commodity packaging to save resources, be easy to recycle or reuse after use, be easy to decompose naturally, not pollute the environment, and protect environmental resources and consumer health. According to this system principle, in recent decades, developed countries have taken measures to formulate laws, regulations and technical standards on packaging containing environmental protection measures, mainly including the following:

1. Formulate laws and regulations on green packaging. Many developed countries require imported product packaging and waste disposal to comply with their laws and regulations through the implementation of laws and regulations

2. Some packaging materials are specified. In order to protect domestic resources, crops, buildings, water sources and forests, and prevent hazards caused by pests, bacteria, microorganisms, etc. in packaging, many countries have made restrictions on packaging and strict inspection and treatment regulations. For example, the use of wood, straw, microorganisms, etc. is prohibited, and many countries have made restrictions on packaging and strict inspection and treatment regulations. For example, it is forbidden to use traditional natural packaging materials such as wood, straw and old gunny bags, and packaging materials containing lead, mercury and cadmium, etc

3. Restrict the use of plastics that cannot be regenerated or decomposed. For example, the United States, the European Union, Japan and other countries prohibit the use of non renewable or non decomposable plastics, and the design, production and commercialization of packaging products must be able to be reused and recycled

4. Enforce recycling or reuse laws. Many countries stipulate that beer, soft drinks and mineral water all use recyclable containers. For example, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Denmark and many other countries have formulated recycling activities and stipulated the recycling proportion of various packaging materials

5. Collect various raw material fees, product packaging and waste disposal. Various taxes (Fees) will be levied on the enterprises producing packaging materials. If recyclable packaging materials are used in the product packaging, it can be exempted from tax. If recycled materials are used in part, a lower tax will be levied; If non reusable or recycled materials are used throughout the country, a higher tax will be levied

III. The main difficulties faced by the implementation of green packaging in China at present

1. The industrial structure of the packaging industry is not reasonable. From 1980 to 1993, the number of packaging enterprises above the county level in China has increased from 2600 to 11033, including nearly 400 large enterprises. Therefore, on the whole, the packaging industry has the phenomenon of small scale, poor quality and low efficiency. Most enterprises have backward production and operation management, poor product quality and low level of comprehensive utilization of resources. Large and medium-sized enterprises that can compete with similar international industries and have good economies of scale are not enough to support the development of the whole industry, so that packaging materials and packaging products have not reached scale production, The consequence is that the total amount of packaging and its waste is not small, but for a given product, it is very different, many and scattered, causing great difficulties for waste disposal

2. The technical structure of the packaging industry is unreasonable. It is manifested in: (1) the differential gradient of technology is unreasonable. Generally speaking, the reasonable differential gradient in line with China's national conditions should be that the proportion of intermediate technology is larger, the proportion of primary technology is the smallest, and the proportion of advanced technology is in the middle. However, there are still 10% to 20% of China's packaging enterprises whose technology is quite backward. At present, only about 30% of China's packaging enterprises can reach the level of national packaging enterprises from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. Therefore, the low level of technology in the packaging industry has led to the fact that the growth mode of China's packaging industry is still driven by extensive reproduction (i.e. extensive growth mode) rather than by technological progress and improving labor productivity. (2) The technological basis of the packaging industry is generally composed of packaging material processing technology, packaging machinery manufacturing technology and packaging containers. At present, the technical strength of the packaging industry is mainly concentrated in the production of packaging containers, while the technical countermeasures for packaging materials and packaging machinery are only expected to be solved by the general raw material production department and the general machinery production department. This situation is increasingly unable to adapt to the development of packaging industry technology

3. The technological development ability of the packaging industry is weak. Due to the serious lack of scientific and technological talents in China's packaging industry and the relatively insufficient capital investment, Li Liangbin, chairman of Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium Industry Branch Co., Ltd., has formed a weak technological development capacity in this industry. According to incomplete statistics, the proportion of professional technicians in the packaging industry is only about 2%, which is much lower than the national average of 6.8%, so the talent problem has become one of the key factors in the development of this industry. Three quarters of the enterprises in the whole industry have not undergone technological transformation, especially the insufficient investment in state-owned large and medium-sized enterprises and basic, high-grade and wide-ranging products, which restricts the development of the industry to a considerable extent. Moreover, due to the weak scientific and technological development capacity and scattered strength of the packaging industry, the function of mutual cooperation is difficult to play, resulting in a large number of scientific and technological achievements failed to be applied to the peace of packaging

4. The formulation and implementation of packaging waste treatment regulations are extremely backward. Since the 1980s, China's departments of environmental protection, labor, foreign trade, commodity inspection, scientific research and production, transportation and storage, circulation and use of packaging materials and containers have been committed to the treatment and utilization of packaging waste, but so far, they still (4) sometimes spray steel sand on the surface of jaws, etc There are no laws and regulations on packaging and waste disposal in line with China's national conditions. This situation also restricts the implementation of the relevant provisions of green packaging in China to a certain extent. Green packaging will be ignored in production, and once the goods are introduced to the international market competition, they will find their products in a very disadvantageous position in packaging. At the same time, some foreign commodities whose packaging level is not up to the green standard will also take the opportunity to polish and chrome plating into China because of the lack of corresponding packaging laws in China, which will bring varying degrees of harm to Chinese consumers and the ecological environment

IV. countermeasures for establishing China's green packaging system

the environmental protection laws and regulations of Europe and the United States have higher requirements and standards for the ease of handling and recyclability of commodity packaging materials, while the commodity packaging materials exported by China are backward, difficult to handle, and the recyclability is low, and the packaging of some export products is still large