With the increasing demand for environmental protection and energy saving in the world, the market has stricter and stricter requirements on product packaging. Harmless, pollution-free, and recyclable environmentally friendly packaging plays a pivotal role in the export trade of commodities. In recent years, the food industry has developed rapidly, packaging demand is strong, and whether packaging materials are environmentally friendly is of great significance.
As we all know, environmental protection is a topic of common concern in today's society. A large amount of packaging waste has caused tremendous pressure on the environment, and packaging waste generated by food that people consume every day accounts for a large proportion. Moreover, packaging waste is mainly solid waste, which is difficult to deal with. The main treatment method for plastics is burying, and a small part of it is decomposed and incinerated. It takes 200-400 years for buried plastic to be decomposed by nature. During this period, it will hinder the growth of crops, and if livestock eat it, it will cause digestive system diseases at least, and death at most. Therefore, in the design, material selection, use and recycling of food packaging, the hazards to the environment must be fully considered and avoided as much as possible.
Green packaging, friends of the environment
Green packaging can also be called pollution-free packaging and environmental friend packaging, which refers to packaging that is harmless to the ecological environment and human health, can be reused and regenerated, and is in line with sustainable development. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Degradable are the 3R and 1D principles recognized in the 21st century for the development of green packaging.
At present, the State Administration for Market Regulation and the National Standardization Administration have issued the "Green Packaging Evaluation Methods and Guidelines." This standard puts forward the four requirements of low-carbon, energy-saving, environmental protection and safety for green packaging products, and stipulates the evaluation criteria for green packaging.
"Green packaging" refers to packaging that is less harmful to human health and the ecological environment and consumes less resources and energy during the entire life cycle of a packaged product, under the premise of meeting the requirements of packaging functions. Paper packaging has undoubtedly become the most environmentally friendly packaging material.
Paper food packaging
Extending green design to the field of paper food packaging is the mainstream trend in the development of paper food packaging design at this stage, which can promote the sustainable development of society while maintaining the aesthetics of paper packaging. For example, the paper selection for food packaging includes water absorption, waterproofing, heat preservation, solar energy conversion, pomace paper, bean dregs paper, carrot paper, long-lasting anti-mold paper, fresh-keeping paper, can paper, acrylic synthetic paper, foam paper, and self-contained paper. Adhesive packaging paper, rigid light-weight packaging paper and other new paper materials.
1. Wei's Smoked Chicken Brand
The paper food packaging replaces plastic bag packaging with lightweight, thin, non-toxic, and high-performance paper packaging materials to reduce the use of ink. The hemp rope is cross-bundled for overall packaging, and efforts are made to reduce the amount of packaging, not only to put on the wedding dress of national culture, but also to arouse people's awareness of environmental protection, which makes people feel cordial and natural, and improves the cultural taste of food packaging. .
2. Milk packaging in Japan
Ninety percent of milk in Japan is sold in crease line packaging, which in itself is a good education for users, allowing children to contact and use environmentally friendly "green" products since they were young. This easily squashed packaging not only has lower production costs, but also reduces the space occupied, facilitates delivery to the recirculation system and reduces transportation costs.
Renewable packaging
Renewable packaging is usually biological packaging material, which refers to the use of biological technology to use packaging materials related to organisms. It can decompose naturally under the action of microorganisms. It is a very ideal green packaging material, and it is also a relatively popular green packaging material in the world.
1. Plant sugar fermentation technology
The UAE beverage company Agthia Group has developed the first plant-based water bottle (including cap) made entirely of fermented plant sugar. It can complete biodegradation within 80 days. Compared with other beverage packaging materials, this revolutionary innovation will reduce the carbon footprint by 60%. The bottle body is made of corn sugar, processed into resin and molded like plastic. The cap is made of fermented sugar cane.
2. Edible ball type beverage packaging
In 2017, Skipping Rocks Lab, an innovative sustainable packaging company based in London, announced a surprising and pleasant invention: the use of seaweed extract to create an edible spherical beverage package. The company uses brown algae extract and calcium chloride to form a gel-like structure, and coats a protective film on the outer layer. When drinking, tear off the outer membrane and put it in the mouth or chew or drink. The outer membrane is completely biodegradable after four to six weeks.
3. Bio-based synthetic plastic PTF
In 2016, DuPont extracted fructose from corn and biomass, converted it into FDME (furandate), and polymerized it with propylene glycol (PDO) to form a completely bio-based and recyclable new plastic PTF (polytrimethylene furan dicarboxylate). Carboxylate), used as an alternative packaging material for traditional carbonated beverage bottles. This plastic has better gas barrier properties, low energy consumption, low cost, and a longer shelf life.
Driven by the green-first global environment, the demand for green packaging by food manufacturers will continue to grow in the future, and the food packaging industry will also usher in new developments.
