What is Sustainable Packaging?

Sustainablepackaging, also known as pollution-free packaging, refers to packaging that isharmless to the ecological environment and human health, can be reused and regenerated,and is composite and sustainable. Its philosophy has two meanings: one is toprotect the environment; The other is to save resources. The two complementeach other and are inseparable. The protection of the environment is the core,and resource conservation is closely related to the protection of theenvironment, because saving resources can reduce waste, which is actually theprotection of the environment from the source. For green packaging, there are4R1D design principles, namely Reduce, reduce packaging materials, and opposethe principle of transitional packaging box reduction; Reuse, the principle ofeffective reuse that can be reused and not easily discarded; Recycle can berecycled, and discarded packaging products according to the principle ofrecycling, processing and recycling; Recover, the principle of resourceregeneration using incineration to obtain energy and fuel; Degradable, theprinciple of degradable, which is degradable and does not cause environmentalpollution. In short, green packaging means not only to ensure the performanceand quality of packaging, but also to reduce packaging costs and environmentalpollution caused by packaging waste.

Atpresent, the main directions of green development of plastic packaging aredegradable and recyclable. Degradable plastics are further subdivided intophotodegradable, biodegradable, water degradable and photo-biodegradablematerials. Photodegradation incorporates photosensitizers into plastics andgradually decomposes under sunlight. It belongs to an earlier generation ofdegradable plastics. Its disadvantage is that the degradation time is affectedby sunlight and the climatic environment, and the degradation time cannot becontrolled. In terms of water degradation, due to the fact that there are notmany degradable materials suitable for water treatment, and most of them arepoor in water resistance, their strength in water is not high and cannot meetthe needs of daily use. Before the popularization and application of waterdegradable materials, there are still many problems that need to be solved, andthe material cost of water degradation is too high, resulting in a higher priceof production, which has a certain impact on its promotion.Photo-biodegradationis a type of plastic that combines photodegradation and microorganisms. Itovercomes the requirements of photodegradation for light, but the correspondingproduct is relatively difficult to prepare, and it is still a relativelydifficult research topic in my country. Biodegradation is the mainstreamproduct in the current degradable plastic industry. Biodegradation uses therespiration or chemical energy synthesis of natural microorganisms such asfungi and bacteria to degrade, and finally decompose into carbon dioxide andwater. Biodegradation and environmental degradation. Because it takes a longtime to integrate into the microbial cycle, it will still exist in the soil fora long time during this period. At the same time, some products will stillproduce environmentally harmful and even harmful substances during thedegradation process. If this type of plastic is promoted on a large scaleProducts will have a very large impact on the environment, and biodegradablematerials are far from being able to meet the diverse needs of the flexiblepackaging industry. Therefore, a single material, recyclable andenvironmentally friendly materials are the inevitable choice for thesustainable development and high-quality development of plastic packaging.