Green Design: The Only Way for Packaging Sustainable Development

Over the past three hundred years of the industrial revolution, human civilization has developed rapidly. At the same time, the natural resources and ecological environment that are available for use have also been greatly affected. Mankind must think about new development paths. The United Nations Environment and Development Commission released “Our Common Future” in 1987. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development adopted the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and Agenda 21 in 1992 and immediately launched a worldwide Protecting the ecological environment as the core of the green action; China's packaging industry "Ninth Five-Year" development plan and 2010 vision for development goals clearly pointed out that the development of the packaging industry should follow the principle of combining accelerated growth with the protection of the environment, green packaging design will focus on people The ecological balance relationship with nature, minimizing the destruction of the living environment this strategic height to frame the design strategy, green packaging design to promote economic and cultural and social development; green packaging fully reflects the coordinated and sustainable development of environmental protection and economic development The ideological strategy of sexual development, the protection of the environment, and the development of green packaging have become an inevitable choice for the development of packaging in countries around the world. Green packaging will become an inevitable trend in the development of the packaging industry.

Green packaging, English "Green Package", some people also call it "Friends of the environment" package "Eviromental Friendly Package" or ecological package "Ecological Package", that is not harmful to the ecological environment and human health, can be recycled and recycled packaging . Green packaging is a systematic project, which includes many aspects such as containers, packaging materials, packaging design, production processes, and waste disposal technologies. It is the development direction of packaging disciplines and also the sustainable development path of China's packaging industry.

At the same time, some packaging designers still have a problem in understanding the basic concept of packaging. They think that product packaging design is only an important means to evoke consumers’ desire to purchase, promote the sale of goods, and obtain economic benefits. Under the effect, a large number of packaging designs that only focus on the immediate economic interests have emerged. For example, the size and volume of commodity packaging have been excessively increased, and unnecessary multi-level and tedious packaging has been carried out. In order to make products have a sense of luxury, high-cost printing is used, and in order to reduce packaging costs, the use of The phenomenon of packaging materials that are difficult to recycle and handle is also everywhere.

Green packaging generally has five aspects:

The first is reduction. Natural resources are the material basis for the packaging industry. From the perspective of sustainable development of human beings, packaging meets the functions of protection, convenience, and sales, and the use of raw materials should be minimized to benefit future generations. The second is easy to reuse, easy to recycle. Through the production of recycled products, incineration and utilization of heat energy, composting to improve soil and other measures to achieve the purpose of reuse. Third, degradable waste packaging. Ultimately, no permanent waste is formed, and the purpose of soil improvement is achieved. Fourth, packaging materials are non-toxic and harmless to humans and organisms. Packaging materials should not contain toxic elements, bacteria, heavy metals or these contents should be controlled below the relevant standards; Fifth, packaging and environmental protection and ecological balance are closely related. Packaging products shall not cause pollution to organisms or the environment from the collection, processing, manufacturing, use, recycling, and recycling of raw materials until their final disposal.

Broadly speaking, in the packaging of production, manufacture, use, and recycling, we respond to human health and have a good protection of the ecological environment. As an important part of the packaging industry, packaging design can be applied to green packaging. Development plays a decisive role. I think we can think from the following aspects:

First, use green materials:

Packaging designers should use green packaging materials as much as possible, which can greatly reduce the environmental pollution caused by the disposal of packaging materials. For example, a new product developed by a foreign company that is used at one time and can be naturally degraded can be used by designers. Try to use the field.

Second, packaging reduction:

In some developed countries, many supermarkets encourage consumers to use nylon shopping bags that can be used multiple times, and use less disposable plastic bags. Materials used in packaging design are minimized, unnecessary packaging is eliminated as much as possible, and simple packaging is promoted. In order to save resources, the design also focuses on reducing packaging, eliminating unnecessary decoration, and taking into account functions.

Third, a single packaging material:

The materials used should be as simple as possible, and should not be mixed with dissimilar materials so that they can be recycled. For example, only one kind of packaging material for cotton socks is not only convenient for recycling, but also has a strong sense of modernity and visual impact; at the same time, it should be used as much as possible. Green ink to achieve green printing.

Fourth, removable packaging design:

The packaging that requires composite material structure should be designed as a detachable structure, which is conducive to recycling after demolition; if the material used for packaging structure is more complex, different materials and structures can be used in different parts for classification and recycling.

Fifth, recycling of packaging materials:

Use packaging that can be recycled, reused, and recycled to increase the life cycle of the package, thereby reducing packaging waste. Eco-friendly packaging material “Ekling material” developed by Eklin, Sweden, is taken from the natural packaging material— eggshell, based on calcium carbonate, the most widely distributed substance in nature, and added to the human body and the natural environment. Harmless polyolefins are adhesives. Their products can be made as strong as hard plastic bottles and as soft as ordinary plastic bags.

Sixth, ergonomics:

Green packaging will be developed to meet the trend of ergonomic packaging, that is, easy to use, reasonable handling, reliable storage, easy interpretation, and meet the special psychological and physiological needs of consumers in various groups, especially consumers in older age groups; In addition to using green materials, in order to facilitate people's carrying, specially designed with plant fibers to handle, that is, coordination and beautiful and convenient to use, better take into account the ergonomic design, it is worth promoting.

While considering many green factors, packaging design should pay attention to comprehensive balance. For example, if a package overemphasizes the green structure and adopts complicated packaging paper and packaging boxes, it is intended to emphasize the packaging materials and structure of commodity packaging despite the exquisite technique and design. High, but because of the waste of materials, it is not worth promoting; as in the design language, it emphasizes and promotes information on environmental protection and creates visual perception of green packaging between patterns, names, colors, and characters, but at the same time it uses The environment is contaminated with packaging materials and is equally undesirable. Therefore, in the actual design work, it is necessary to comprehensively balance the design factors and continuously accumulate design experience in order to obtain the optimal design.

It can be foreseen that the "green revolution" will surely be an important theme of the global packaging industry in the new century, and it will also be a distinctive feature of the development of the packaging industry in the new century. "The century will be a green century, and it will also be a green packaging world. China's packaging design must catch up with the world's "green wave" to meet the challenges of the world and ensure that it is achieved in the world market in the 21st century. initiative.

Author / He Jiazhang Source: China Packaging Industry