Impact of Ecolabels on Consumption, Production, and Trade

The function of the tag is to indicate a product's nature or certain features that are easy for consumers to identify, purchase, and use. Ecolabel is no exception. It explains the ecological performance of products through the way of labels.

Promoting the "ecology, health and safety" lifestyle among consumers through eco-labels and promoting the "ecology, health, and safety" mode of production and products in the industry, ecolabels have been adopted by many countries and some civil organizations. The response and affirmation. Ecolabels have had a huge impact on global consumption, production and trade.

First, it gradually established the concept of ecological consumption among consumers in developed countries. Consumers in developed countries pay great attention to the ecological performance of products when they purchase goods. They will pay attention to whether the product will cause harm to the user during use, whether the product will cause harm to the ecology during the processing, whether the product can be recycled, and so on. Most consumers are willing to buy eco-friendly products under the same conditions, and some consumers are willing to pay more for eco-friendly products.

Consumers in developed countries generally believe that large companies engaged in industrial production and services have the responsibility to contribute to the sustainable development of society. An opinion poll for European consumers shows that more than 50% of people in Europe today prefer to buy green products. Among them, 67% of Dutch people and more than 80% of Germans consider environmental factors when shopping, with more than 50%. The British are more willing to buy green products.

A survey conducted by the NSW NSW Chamber of Commerce in 2001 showed that 60% of consumers’ consumption decisions have noticed the ecological impact of the product. Seventy-three percent of consumers said that they are more willing to buy eco-friendly products in the same quality of the situation, and 49% of consumers said that if necessary, they will replace the brand of the product they purchased. In addition, Environics International Ltd.’s telephone interview with 35,000 people in 34 Australian states in 2000 showed that 34% of consumers strongly expressed their willingness to pay 10% more for eco-friendly products than normal prices, and Forty-four percent of consumers said they may pay 10% more for eco-friendly products than usual.

The concern of consumers in developed countries about the ecological performance of products can not be attributed to the fact that ecolabels have led to consumers in the past few decades. It is precisely because eco-labels continue to play an important role in the concept of eco-consumption among consumers, thus prompting the industrial community to devote more and more energy to the development and production of eco-products. Not only industrial countries in developed countries, export companies in developing countries also need to meet the needs of consumers who sell products, but must also improve the ecological performance of products.

The market position of eco-labels is 10% to 15% of top-level products. However, many eco-labels, especially eco-labels developed by governments of various countries, often represent the direction of governments of various countries in setting eco-laws and ordinances and become the reference for the formulation of eco-laws and ordinances. Due to the current differences in the evaluation standards of various eco-labels, there are also great differences in the ecological decrees and regulations formulated by various governments. Although these ecological regulations and decrees are compared with eco-labels, their requirements are all basic requirements. However, for exporting companies in developing countries, these ecological regulations and decrees still constitute technical barriers in international trade and pose serious challenges to the exports of developing countries.

Taking Europe, Japan, and the United States as an example, the laws and regulations on textile ecology promulgated in these countries and regions so far totaled 37, involving as many as 20 kinds of harmful substances. These harmful substances are closely related to the raw materials, dyes and chemicals used in the products, processing technology, etc. Therefore, the export products of developing countries need to meet these requirements must not be achieved overnight.

Now, eco-labels have added new content to the traditional model of product quality. The new product value equation has been added to this important assessment indicator of ecological performance. The ecological performance of products has also become a must for inspection in national trade.

Summarizing the impact of ecolabels on global consumption, trade, and industry, it is not difficult to find that ecolabels have gradually established the concept of eco-consumption among consumers in developed countries, and that global industries have also been incorporated into eco-systems through international trade. Competing. Although most eco-labels are voluntarily added, the ecological regulations and decrees of countries referenced by eco-labels constitute technical barriers in international trade. The ecological performance of products has gradually become an important part of product quality.

As ecological products are a new research field, the standards and definitions of various types of ecological products are still being researched and discussed. From the review principle, the use of LCA product life cycle inspection principles, the product from the raw materials, production and processing, use and disposal of the whole process of examining the impact of the ecology, is the future development direction of eco-label.

Since ecolabels involve multiple disciplines, the evaluation criteria for many ecolabels can only reflect the research and understanding of certain organizations. The scientificness and rationality of many assessment criteria need to be further confirmed. Consumers evaluate certain ecotypes. There are doubts about the standard. Therefore, for a long period of time, eco-labels can only be used as a means of voluntary implementation and cannot be enforced. However, the eco-regulations and ordinances promulgated by developed countries with reference to their eco-labels will continue to have an impact on future international trade.

Source: China Textile News