Developing Green Packaging to Promote Export Trade

In order to adapt to the new competition caused by the new regulations and new standards proposed by the countries in the world, to break through green trade barriers and consolidate and expand the export market, our export enterprises must renew their packaging concepts, strengthen their awareness of pollution-free, and vigorously develop green packaging.

With the advancement of science and technology and the improvement of people’s awareness of environmental protection, the connotation of green packaging is increasing, so green packaging is a dynamic concept. In general, it should be a package that is conducive to environmental protection and the use of renewable resources, including the following components: It can be reused, reused, or degraded, and it will not cause harm to the human body and the environment throughout its life cycle. Many developed countries have summarized green packaging as packaging designed according to the "4RID" principle, namely Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Refill, and dwgradble. Degradable packaging). At present, green packaging has become one of the important factors affecting the international competitiveness of export commodities in various countries.

First, the necessity and urgency of developing green packaging

(1) Green packaging saves resources and guarantees continuous growth of trade

It is undeniable that the richness of a country’s resources is still an important factor in determining the country’s position in the international trade landscape. The size of exports depends largely on the amount of resources. The small amount of resources per capita is China's basic national conditions. On the other hand, packaging waste is increasing, which pollutes the environment and wastes resources. According to statistics, the annual solid waste production in China is 600 million tons, which has accumulated over 8 billion tons over the years and covers an area of ​​700 million square meters. The recycling rate is only 40%, plus most of the existing enterprises in the packaging industry in China. It is a small and medium-sized enterprise with obsolete equipment, backward technology, and high resource consumption. In this way, while developing the packaging industry, the consumption of resources also increases at the same time, which intensifies the contradiction of resource shortage. In the long run, it will inevitably constrain the development of China’s economy and the continuation of export trade. increase.

Vigorously developing green packaging can partially solve the problem of insufficient resources. Since the green packaging is designed according to the “4RID” principle, firstly, the amount of packaging materials used can be reduced. However, the repeated use or recycling of packaging waste, which can be reused or used for other purposes, can save resources. Purpose: Degradation of corroded packaging waste can be composted, which will help improve the soil and increase fertility, thus creating more resources.

(II) Developing export green packaging to break "green trade barriers"

With the improvement of environmental protection awareness, environmental standards and regulations in various countries are increasingly strict and demanding. Green barriers will become the main non-tariff barriers in international trade in the next century, and the use of packaging to set up technical trade barriers is also the main content of green trade barriers. . At present, the setting of packaging green barriers is mainly achieved through environmental protection signs. Since West Germany began implementing the "Blue Angel" environmental protection mark certification system since 1978, developed countries have adopted their own legislation to form their own environmental protection signs. The environmental protection mark, also known as the green sign, is a graphic posted on the product or packaging, indicating that the product not only meets the standards of quality, but also meets the requirements of the environmental protection requirements in the process of production, use, consumption and disposal, and the ecological environment and the human body. There is no harm to health. It is issued by certain government departments in accordance with relevant regulations and standards to certain products. As the green flags of various countries are formulated on the basis of their own economic development level and laws, the standards vary. Developed countries often use this to impose various import restrictions on products that do not have green signs, and they are not even allowed to enter the country’s market. China's refrigerator export, because there is no green sign, has once decreased from US$1.4 billion in 1988 to US$51 million in 1991. The lesson is very profound. Therefore, only by vigorously developing export green packaging can we effectively break the technical barriers that new trade protectionists use to set up packaging.

(c) Green Packaging is a Need to Integrate with International Practices

At present, environmental protection has been put on the agenda of many international organizations. In the field of international trade, the establishment of the "World Trade Organization" took environmental protection issues as one of its aims, and added "environment and trade" in its "package" agreement. agreement". It is certain that in the near future, the packaging problem will surely become the content of the multilateral negotiations of the World Trade Organization. The "International Organization for Standardization" established the "Environmental Strategy" Advisory Group as early as 1991, and began to implement 犐牦014000 in September 1996. At the same time, it announced that it will only give a two-to-three-year buffer period for this new certification standard. The international standard 犐牦014000 series, like ISO9000, is a mandatory international standard, except that it regards the protection of the environment as its core content. Its implementation will help countries avoid repeated audits, certifications, and sign registrations that are inconsistent with laws and regulations in terms of environmental protection. In order to eliminate contradictions among countries, the goal of eliminating green trade barriers will eventually be achieved. At present, more than 20 countries have adopted ISO14000 directly as their national environmental management system standard. By the end of 1997, more than 800 companies in the world had passed the certification, including more than 200 in the United States, more than 400 in Europe, and more than 200 in Asia. In China, only 64 companies such as Haier passed this certification standard. In addition, some regional organizations have also integrated environmental issues into the integration agenda. In the trilateral trade negotiations between the North American Free Trade Area from June 1991 to August 1992 and the deliberations of national parliaments from August 1992 to December 1993, the issue of environmental protection has always been one of the themes. The EU and ASEAN-7 countries have already taken actions in environmental labeling that are directly reflected in the packaging of goods.

Although there are still green barriers in the field of international environmental protection, due to the general improvement in the awareness of environmental protection in the world, the environmental protection standards and marking systems of various countries are developing in the direction of mutual recognition and mutual coordination, plus the efforts of some international organizations, environmental protection and packaging. Standardization, standardization, generalization and institutionalization are becoming inevitable trends.

(D) Green packaging is one of the means of international marketing

The famous marketing scientist Philiphs Kotler pointed out in Marketing Management that "many marketers call the Package P a fifth P, and the first four P, Product, Price, Place, and Promotion together form the Marketing Mix. It shows the status of packaging in modern marketing. Under the new situation in which the green revolution has become increasingly popular, green packaging as an important part of the green revolution has gradually become an important means of market competition, and green packaging products have gradually become the first consideration for consumers when making purchase decisions. A survey of Japan showed that 37% of wholesalers found that their customers picked and purchased products with environmental labels, and 73% of manufacturers and 50% of wholesalers were willing to develop, produce or sell products with green labels. Another survey showed that in 1990, 67% of Dutch, 80% of Germans, and 77% of Americans considered the impact of goods on the environment when purchasing goods. At the same time, any product that has a green logo is easily accepted by the other party in export transactions and can receive certain preferential tariffs and prices. For example, the US Department of Energy has asked all its contract manufacturers to pass ISO 14000 before 1998, otherwise the contract will be cancelled. Germany requires that all products imported into Germany must have the German green label on the packaging. China’s first Qingdao Haier Group, which passed the ISO14000 certification, sold 50,000 refrigerators to the German market, ranking the first in Asia. The reason was that the plant obtained a 50% reduction in the Freon content in the refrigerator foam material. German environmental protection sign.

Second, the development of China's export green packaging measures

It should be recognized that China's export product packaging has made great progress in the past 10 years and has effectively promoted the development of China's export trade. However, there is still a big gap compared with the world's advanced level. "First-class goods, second-class packaging, three The passive situation of equal prices has not yet been fundamentally changed. Many export products cause waste of resources due to excessive packaging, and packaging waste also pollutes the environment. Green packaging awareness is still very weak. According to relevant statistics, China's annual foreign exchange earnings have been reduced by about 10% due to packaging problems. A considerable portion of this is caused by packaging that does not meet environmental protection requirements. Therefore, it is imperative to vigorously advocate and develop green packaging. The following areas of work should be done at present.

(I) Strengthening the awareness of export green packaging At present, many export companies still focus more on the protection of the use value of goods when packaging products, while seldom consider environmental protection issues. In today's "green wave" sweeping the world, export companies should establish a green marketing concept, and further recognize the status and role of green packaging in the field of international circulation. It should be clearly understood that the development of green packaging not only can reduce energy consumption and material consumption, reduce costs and reduce pollution, but also can enhance corporate image, increase consumers' sense of corporate identity and trust, and thus improve the product's international competitiveness.
(2) Enhancing technology, improving design, and developing new materials Packaging design is the primary task for us to promote green packaging. It has a direct impact on the packaging methods, the selection and use of packaging materials, and the disposal of packaging waste. The overall requirements for green packaging design, in addition to the emphasis on packaging protection and display functions, should also add environmental and psychological functions. For export, packaging design should also pay attention to the following aspects:
1. The environmental protection requirements of the target market countries must be known. Many of China's export commodities fail to meet the environmental protection requirements of importing countries. One of the important reasons is that there is not enough knowledge about the environmental protection laws and regulations of importing countries and the intensity of consumer environmental awareness. For example, in China, the use of plastic packaging foods and drugs is still relatively common, but in the United States and Japan have been banned; Australian Quarantine Bureau regulations, where imported goods are packed in wooden boxes, all need to provide fumigation certificate. If these factors are not taken into account in the design of the packaging, it is difficult to avoid export obstruction.

2. The environmental protection atmosphere should be emphasized in the design of packaging, decoration, patterns and colors to adapt to the modern consumer psychology of foreign consumers protecting the environment and beautifying the environment.

3. In the selection of packaging materials, we must vigorously develop lightweight, high-performance paper packaging, bamboo packaging, glass packaging, and transform plastic packaging. Paper packaging and glass bottle packaging have the advantages of small pollution and easy recycling, and are also more in line with the technical level of China's packaging industry. The key to the present is to strengthen the technological transformation of papermaking and glass manufacturing industries. For example, the glass manufacturing industry should increase efforts to develop high-strength, thin, and convenient glass and can packaging; the paper industry should also actively adopt high technology, develop alkali-free papermaking, develop and produce strength and barrier properties with plastics and plastics. Products are equivalent to paper products, to adapt to the trend of packaging "paper to plastic" in many countries and regions.

Of course, green packaging materials are not limited to these. It should include all high-tech means of producing packaging materials that are conducive to the protection of the environment and the recycling of resources (for example, the United States, Japan, and other countries have now begun to use methylene chloride as a foaming agent. Freon that pollutes the environment). In addition, natural biomaterials such as bamboo and hemp that are easily decomposed in the natural environment are also currently ideal packaging materials.

The promotion of green packaging is inseparable from the development of packaging technology. Packaging technology is also a system technology. It involves many aspects such as packaging design, raw materials and accessories, and machinery, and requires close cooperation among various departments. China's packaging technology is still relatively backward. According to statistics, by the end of the century, only 30% of packaging companies in China could reach the level of developed countries in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Therefore, green packaging is not only a major change in packaging itself, but also a major change in the production of packaging manufacturers.

(C) Accelerate the pace of integration with the international community

1. Learn from foreign experience and implement packaging legislation

At present, the United States, Germany, France, the Netherlands and other developed countries have passed laws to guarantee the promotion and use of green packaging, and have formulated various laws and regulations that restrict packaging waste. However, China is still blank in this regard. Although in recent years some policies on packaging have been gradually introduced, due to the lack of mandatory binding force, it has little effect, and China’s national environmental awareness is still relatively weak.