Concept of Green Packaging and Its Legal Regulation (I)

In view of the negative impact of packaging on the environment, a wave of green packaging has arisen around the world. At the same time, green packaging has also had a major impact on international trade and has become an important aspect of green barriers. Therefore, more and more domestic laws and international treaties are used to adjust green packaging. The basis of legal regulation of green packaging is to define the concept and legal characteristics of green packaging.

First, the concept of green packaging

At present, there is no unified definition for green packaging, and it should be sought from the development of green packaging and recognized evaluation criteria.
(a) The origin of green packaging. In 1987 and 1992, the United Nations Commission on Environment and Development issued "Our Common Future" and "Declaration on the Rio Environment and Development" and "Agenda 21", proposed the theory of sustainable development and set off a worldwide scale. The green wave centered on protecting the environment and saving resources. The development of the packaging industry in the U.S. and Europe has paid close attention to the self-service retail/distribution industry and the demand for consumer goods packaging, and from the farm/producer to the consumer, to the entire logistics in their trash/waste processing system. The rationality of the operating system is increasingly focused on environmental issues including packaging waste. Under the impact of the world's green wave, "green packaging" as a new concept to effectively solve the packaging and the environment emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This new concept is also known abroad as "pollution-free packaging" or "friends of the environment packaging." As North America and Europe are the main consumers of packaging, the development of its packaging industry is also leading the world. Therefore, green packaging first appeared in the developed countries of North America, Europe and other regions, and subsequently received development in developing countries. Other countries' responses.
(b) Evaluation criteria for green packaging. At present, there is no uniform evaluation standard for green packaging, but internationally recognized principles and methods for determining the relationship between packaging and the environment include:
1.3 Principles of R1D Reduce (Principle of Packaging Reduction): The first principle of green packaging is to reduce the use of packaging materials. People should first avoid and reduce the generation of waste, rather than afterwards to produce governance. In ensuring the protection, transportation, storage, sales, and other functions of packaging, the first factor to consider is to minimize the total amount of materials used. When the recyclability of packaging is inconsistent with the reduction in usage, the latter should be given priority, because The people are more environmentally friendly. Should promote the simple, "Simple" is to remove the cumbersome, stacked things, "covenant" is to save materials, save labor. To minimize the use of packaging design as much as possible, promote unpackaged products for sale. Excessive packaging or disposable packaging is not in line with the principle of reduction.
Reuse (reuse principle): Consider that all or part of the package is used, recycled, handled, and reused. Packaging should be easy to reuse. Reuse can reduce the amount of packaging required, thus reducing the total amount of packaging waste that eventually enters the environment. To a certain extent, it can avoid and reduce the environmental pollution of the packaging itself and the environmental pollution caused by the packaging during the production process. At the same time, repeated use can also save resources for packaging, thereby reducing damage to the environment and improving resource utilization.
Recycle (recycling principle): That is, the green packaging should pay attention to the recycling of the packaging, recycling the used packaging, processing and reprocessing, and use it in different fields. It can reduce the pressure of final waste on landfills and incineration, and make finished products use less resources and energy. Therefore, designers of packaged products should pay attention to selecting materials that have recycled value so that they can be returned to the economic cycle after recycling.
Degradable (can degrade the principle of corruption): In order not to form permanent waste, non-recyclable packaging waste should be able to self decomposition, and through the composting to achieve the purpose of improving the soil.
2. LCA (Life Cycle Accessment) theory is the life cycle assessment method. Life cycle assessment is an objective process that evaluates the pressure on products, production processes, and activities on the environment. It seeks to improve the environmental impact and how to use this opportunity through the use of energy and materials, and the impact of waste emissions on the environment. This assessment runs through the entire life cycle of products, processes, and activities, including the extraction and processing of raw materials; product manufacturing, transportation, and sales; the use, reuse, and maintenance of products; waste recycling and final waste disposal. The basic structure of life cycle assessment can be summarized as four organic links (see Figure 4): defining goals and scope; inventory analysis; impact accessibility and improvement assessment.

Defining goals and determining scope is the first step in LCA. Defining goals clearly explains the purpose and reason of this LCA and its possible application areas. The scope of the study should be determined to satisfy the purpose of the study, including defining the system under study, determining the boundaries of the system, specifying the data requirements, indicating important assumptions and limitations, etc.
Inventory analysis is a data-based, objective quantification of the energy and raw material requirements for a product, process, and activity over its entire life cycle, as well as emissions to the environment (exhaust gas, wastewater, solid waste, and other environmental emissions). process. The impact assessment is the quantitative or qualitative evaluation of the environmental impact pressure identified at the inventory stage, that is, the determination of the impact of the exchange of materials and energy of the product system on its external environment. This assessment should consider the ecosystem, human health and other aspects. Impact.
Improvement analysis is a systematic assessment of the needs and opportunities for cutting energy consumption, raw material use, and environmental release throughout the life cycle of a product, process, or activity. This analysis includes quantitative and qualitative improvements. For example, change the product structure, re-select raw materials, change the manufacturing process and consumption methods, and waste management.
At present, the theory and method of inventory analysis are relatively mature. One of the most authoritative is a research report published by the US Environmental Protection Agency in 1993: “Life Cycle Assessment: Outline and Principles of Inventory Analysis”. The theory and methods of impact assessment are at the stage of research and exploration, and there are few studies on improving the theory and methods of evaluation.
The ecological assessment of packaging products is based on the entire life cycle of the packaging products, from the extraction of raw materials, production and processing, transportation, sales, use, recycling, processing to the reuse of the whole process using quantitative comparison methods for analysis and research, in order to draw the final conclusion. The best design solution is to reduce the pressure of packaging waste on the environment. The starting point of LCA research was to analyze and evaluate packaging products as carriers. In the 1990s, the international community’s research on LCA rose to the point of establishing theoretical frameworks and methodologies. The packaging of products of some well-known enterprise groups has been tried through the above ideas. Determine the proper packaging system and obtain good economic benefits and public image. LCA assessment is an important part of modern packaging. It reduces the impact or damage of human packaging production activities on the natural environment. It also provides packaging companies with the direction of development of packaging materials and packaging waste disposal.
(c) The definition of green packaging. Through the above analysis, the green packaging can be defined as follows: it is harmless to the ecological environment and human health, can be recycled and reused or degraded, and can promote the sustainable development of packaging. The correct understanding of the definition of green packaging should be clear: First, green packaging shows that packaging is a means to solve environmental problems, rather than the environmental issues themselves, and the environmental problems caused by packaging must ultimately be solved through the development of packaging. Green packaging fully reflects the responsibility of packaging for environmental protection and the technological innovation of packaging that is dedicated to improving the living conditions of human beings. Second, green packaging has the dual meanings of environmental protection and resource regeneration. In order to reduce pollution and protect the environment, we must maximize resources conservation. Saving resources and energy is also a fundamental measure to protect the environment. Third, green packaging involves the entire life cycle of packaging products. In current real life, it is still difficult to specify which packaging is an absolute green packaging, because even the best packaging, if it is discarded, is not recycled, can be harmful to the environment, and it is difficult to call it green. package. The main purpose of researching green packaging is to strengthen greening throughout the entire life cycle of packaging products. To this end, packaging products must be comprehensively measured from the selection of raw materials, the manufacture, use, recycling, and disposal of products to meet the requirements of ecological and environmental protection, and to maintain a virtuous cycle in the natural ecosystem. It includes such contents as saving resources, energy, reducing quantity, easy recycling, avoiding or reducing the generation of waste, burning, degradable, etc. that have ecological and environmental protection requirements.