Future Analysis of Green Packaging Printing (II)

Second, the printing industry

(I) Pollution in printing

1. Printing ink harms human body

The main pollutant in the ink is "organic volatiles", abbreviated as VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) in English, and are organic chemicals that can react with sunlight and nitrogen oxides in the ozone layer. VOCs that evaporate into ozone combine with fine dust particles and other substances in the dust to form fog, stimulate the human lungs, and negatively affect various biological health such as animals and plants.

At present, China's printing industry is mainly using solvent-based inks, in which VOC (organic volatiles) emissions, some inorganic pigments contain lead, chromium, copper, mercury and other heavy metals, have a certain toxicity, can not be used to print food packaging and children Toys; Some organic pigments contain biphenyl gum, which is carcinogenic. Among the organic solvents used in printing, many are natural resins and synthetic resins, which are important components of various inks. In production, when the solvent enters the body through skin contact, it will damage the human body and subcutaneous fat. Long-term exposure will make the skin chapped and rough. If it penetrates the skin or blood vessels, it will endanger the blood cells and hematopoietic function of the person with blood; The bronchus, lungs, or other parts of the bloodstream or lymphatic vessels may even cause chronic poisoning. Some inks have the toxicity problem of heavy metal ions, and pigments and fuels contain carcinogenic ingredients, which cause great harm to the human body.

In the printing of composite packaging materials, a large amount of ink is used, and some toxic substances will migrate into the food and endanger people's health. Ethanol, isopropanol, butanol, propanol, butanone, ethyl acetate, butyl acetate, toluene, xylene and other organic solvents are often used in printing inks, which are toxic and flammable, and are not conducive to environmental protection, health, and safety. Although most of them can be removed by drying, residual solvents can migrate into foods and endanger human health. Especially in gravure printing inks, the pigment particles are very small, and the adsorption force is very strong. Although it has been heated and dried during printing, due to short time and high speed, the drying is often incomplete, especially the larger inked area and the ink layer. Thick prints have more residual solvent. These residual solvents are brought into the compounding process and are difficult to run off after compounding. They will slowly migrate and infiltrate, which will directly harm human health. In Europe, the situation of gravure printing materials is very different. For example, gravure publication printing and decorative printing use almost 100% of water-based inks. In packaging gravure printing, water-based or alcohol-based inks are basically used, and mixed solvents are not used at all, which facilitates recycling. The proportion of solvent-free compounding reached nearly 90%. Therefore, the environmental issue of the gravure printing process has been almost completely resolved. Therefore, our country’s improvement work in this area must be accelerated.

2. water pollution

The water pollution generated in gravure printing mainly comes from inorganic substances such as etching liquid and electroplating waste liquid used in the process of plate making. The organic substances contained in photographic film and offset printing plate developing washing waste are mostly directly discharged without effective treatment. To rivers, lakes and seas, is an important cause of water pollution - it will also pollute the soil and enrich in the soil.

3. sound polution

The noise generated by printing presses, air compressors, drying equipment, and various molding machines, to a certain extent, causes damage to human body functions.

(II) Basic Measures for Developing Green Printing

First, vigorously develop and develop water-based inks, UV inks, and other new inks that meet environmental requirements. Water-based ink is a world-recognized environmentally-friendly printing material. Since water is a polar substance, depending on the compatibility of polar substances with polar substances, water-based inks do not contain or contain a very small amount of organic solvents. Therefore, water-based inks are the largest. Features are reduced VOC emissions

Quantity, thus avoiding the pollution of volatile organics, improving the printing operation environment and benefiting human health. It can completely eliminate certain toxic and harmful substances in the solvent ink and harm the human body and the pollution of the packaging products. It is especially suitable for packaging, printing products with strict sanitary conditions such as foods, beverages and drugs. In addition, it reduces the risk of fire caused by static electricity and flammable solvents, and reduces the residual solvent odor on the print surface.

Second, the development of water-based glazing process. Film coating and oily coating will cause great harm to the environment. The thinner used for water-based coating is non-toxic, odorless and non-polluting water. From the point of view of environmental protection and human health, water-based glazing technology is undoubtedly advantageous.

Third, use of environmental protection technologies to treat waste gas and waste. Collect all types of waste generated during the printing process, recycle valuable materials such as paper, and recycle waste materials such as film and plastic film that are difficult to degrade the environment. Or sanitary landfill.

At this stage, because of process and other reasons, it is also necessary to use a variety of printing materials with pollution, such as oily ink, oily film, oily glazing, etc., and harmful and toxic gases generated during their use can pass. The adsorption, absorption, catalytic combustion and other methods of ventilation are used to reduce the concentration of harmful gases in the working environment, reduce the harm to the human body, and reduce the pollution of harmful gases to the environment.

III. Circular Economy and Sustainable Development of Packaging and Printing Industry

With China's rapid economic growth and increasing population, the contradiction between insufficient resources such as water, land, energy and mineral resources has become increasingly prominent. The situation in ecological construction and environmental protection has become increasingly severe. Faced with this situation, it is particularly important and urgent to develop the circular economy and accelerate the building of a resource-saving society in accordance with the requirements of the scientific concept of development. The development of circular economy is the fundamental way to ease the contradiction of resource constraints, is an effective way to fundamentally reduce environmental pollution, is an important measure to improve economic efficiency, is an urgent need to respond to new trade protectionism, is people-centered, to achieve the essence of sustainable development Claim. The so-called circular economy is an economy that integrates the comprehensive utilization of clean production and waste. It is essentially an ecological economy. It requires the use of ecological laws to guide the economic activities of human society. Compared with traditional economy, the difference of circular economy lies in that traditional economy is a one-way flow economy composed of "resource-product-pollution". In this kind of economy, people use more and more intensity to develop the material and energy on the earth, and in the process of production, processing and consumption, they also discharge a lot of pollution and waste into the environment. The use of resources is often Extensive and one-off, through the continuous conversion of resources into waste to achieve the quantitative growth of the economy, resulting in the shortage and depletion of many natural resources, and led to the consequences of catastrophic environmental pollution. In contrast, circular economy advocates an economic development model based on the continuous recycling of materials. It requires that economic activities be organized into a "resource-product-renewable resource" in accordance with the natural ecosystem model. The process of repeated circulation of matter leads to the fact that the entire economic system and the processes of production and consumption do not produce or generate very little waste.

As the saying goes, only local resources are misplaced and there is no real waste. Circular economy is characterized by low input, reuse, and waste recycling of natural resources; Rccycle, which follows the 3R principle, fundamentally resolves the sharp conflict between environment and development over a long period of time. . In short, circular economy is the use of natural resources and environmental capacity in accordance with ecological laws to achieve an ecological shift in economic activities. It is an inevitable choice and an important guarantee for the implementation of sustainable strategies. For a long time, China's packaging and printing industry has developed extensively under high consumption, high energy consumption, and high pollution. However, with the fragility of human living ecosystems, deteriorating environmental quality, and lack of resources, we can no longer use traditional development models in both resource stock and environmental bearing capacity. If the packaging and printing industry continues to follow the path of traditional economic development, it will only slow down the process of modernization in our country and hinder the healthy and sustainable development of the packaging and printing industry. The development of the economy and the protection of the environment are the inevitable contradictions that are inevitable in the traditional economy. To fundamentally resolve this deep-seated contradiction, it is imperative that the transition from the traditional economy to the circular economy be achieved as soon as possible, and sustainable consumption be realized from the consumption mode. While basing on the rapid development of the packaging and printing industry, attention should be given to the co-ordination of the structure, benefits, and quality of the industry. Vigorously developing green packaging and printing is a concrete manifestation of circular economy in the packaging and printing industry. It is an essential requirement for the development of a recycling economy and an overall coordinated and sustainable development concept. It is a powerful measure to establish a resource-saving society and promote harmony between man and nature. Everyone in the packaging and printing industry must understand and use the overall perspective to grasp the importance and urgency of developing a recycling economy, and further enhance the sense of conscientiousness and responsibility. It is imperative to vigorously develop green packaging and printing.