Excessive packaging of four core issues

Now everyone knows that over-packaging, how to promote the formation of a green consumption model for the whole society and other topics have been hotly debated by the public. However, this phenomenon can be repeated without change. Let's take a look at the core issues that caused this result.

Focus One: What are the criteria for judging excessive packaging? Need to refer to both national and local regulations

The General Regulations on Over-packaging of Commodities jointly issued by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and the National Standardization Administration pointed out that over-packaging refers to exceeding the normal packaging functional requirements, and the number of packaging layers, packaging voidage, and packaging costs exceeds the necessary level. package of.

Then, what is the "degree" of overpacking? Is there a clear national standard? Experts in the industry stated that the judgment on over packaging “degree” generally needs to refer to both national and local regulations.

At present, the national standards that have been implemented include: "Overall restrictions on over-packaging of commodities", "Restriction of over-packaging of foods and cosmetics," "Measurement of food and cosmetics packaging inspections," "Measurement and supervision of quantitative packaging of goods," and other measures.

In addition, some regions have also issued local regulations specifically for restricting over-packaging and promoting the reduction of commodity packaging, such as “Some Regulations for Decreasing the Volume of Commodity Packaging in Shanghai” and “Lanzhou City’s Circular on Further Strengthening the Over-packaging of Commodities”. .

Specific to different industries, Hu Guangwei, a researcher at the Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences, said that at present, the national standards mainly specify “limitation” for packaging of beverages, pastries, cosmetics, health foods, and foodstuffs. The limited requirements include: packaging voidage, packaging The number of floors, and the cost of packaging and the ratio of the sales price of goods, etc.

For example, the void content of beverages should be 55% or less, the number of packaging layers must be 3 or less, and the void ratio of health products and cosmetics should be less than 60%, and the number of packaging layers must be 3 or less. Also, the sum of all packaging costs for foods and cosmetics other than the initial packaging should not exceed 20% of the selling price of the goods.

However, Hu Guangwei said that there are no clear national standards, local regulations, or guidance documents for such areas as fruit, fresh produce, and express delivery. The lack of excessive packaging standards is still a universal issue.

What is the over-packaged regulatory process? The person in charge of the Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision stated that at present, China mainly adopts the form of spot checks and samples are taken according to a certain proportion of the total amount of goods.

The specific operational procedures are: sampling of food and cosmetic packaging, and extraction from the food and cosmetics to be sold in the finished product warehouse of the production company or the food and cosmetics sales place. For foods and cosmetics of the same variety and the same package style, the sampling quantity is generally 1 piece.

Focus 2: What are the main areas of overly-packed "hard-hit areas"? Health care products, beverages, and express delivery are key areas. Some famous brands have "blacklists"

Relevant person in charge of the National Bureau of Geological Supervision said that the problem of excessive packaging of goods is concentrated in the fields of health products, beverages, and express delivery. In addition, there are also issues related to the degree of cosmetics, tea, medicines, and moon cakes.

The results of supervision and spot checks on the packaging of goods in the first quarter of 2017 announced by the Shanghai Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision showed that the sampling failure rate of brewed into convenience food packaging represented by health products reached 20%, and the unqualified items were all package void ratios.

According to an industry source, in recent years, the passing rate of sampling for commodity packaging has been rising year after year, but the passing rate of health care product packaging has been “delayed.” Although the country has clear specifications for the packaging of health products, the restrictions imposed on manufacturers are limited. In the past two years, some well-known brands have been on the "blacklist", and some brands have even appeared on the list more than once.

The problem of excessive packaging of beverages and drinks was equally prominent. The reporter saw in the publicity of spot checks that even some of the well-known brands had boarded a “black list” of unqualified packaging products.

A survey by the reporter found that the phenomenon of high-grade wine "bottles are more expensive than liquor" is very common. Taobao, blue and white porcelain, enamel and other materials of high-end custom bottle prices ranging from one or two hundred to one or two thousand dollars, these bottles exquisite workmanship, no different from the art. Many businesses have used "bottles for art collections" as marketing gimmicks.

Excessive packaging problems in the field of express delivery are almost everywhere. Under the circumstance that China’s laws and regulations do not explicitly regulate the specifications of express packages for different categories, merchants and courier operators will generally give more goods in order to ensure that the goods are not damaged during transportation. Add a few "clothes."

Large refrigerators, washing machines, small mobile phone shells, eyeliners, and nowadays hot fresh cold chain distribution, received courier packaging is almost always a few times larger than the actual product. If it is fragile items, the packaging is more complicated, plastic bags, cartons, buffer bags, foam sponges, tapes, and so on.

Ms. Li, who runs a fresh e-commerce business in the Northeast, told reporters that over-packaging is also a frustrating move, when fresh packaging costs more than 10 yuan. “We are not willing to increase our operating costs, but if the packaging is simple, some customers will complain that food is not safe, so we can only cover several layers.”

Focus 3: What pollution is caused by excessive packaging? It takes nearly 100 years for the tape to degrade, and the inferior filling contains pathogens

Zhu Lei, deputy director of the Qingdao Institute of Beijing Institute of Printing, said that the preliminary estimate of the actual recycling rate of plastic packaging in China is less than 10%. Most of the tapes are made of polyvinyl chloride, which not only needs to be degraded after nearly a hundred years, but also causes the tape and the box to be separated from each other objectively, thus increasing the recycling costs of other packaging materials. Most of these packages were sent directly to landfills or incinerated in landfills, which has become a prominent problem in polluting the urban environment in recent years.

In addition, the reporter learned that some merchants and courier companies also use packing materials made of inferior materials in order to reduce packaging costs.

According to internal staff of a courier company, many courier packaging plastic fillers still use recycled materials recovered from chemical waste, medical waste and household waste. This kind of plastic bag generally contains pathogenic bodies such as excessive heavy metals, toxic organic substances, and bacterial viruses. For paperboard packaging, some courier companies use excessive amounts of filler to increase the weight of the carton and use inferior ink to print, resulting in excessive levels of harmful organics remaining on the paperboard package.

Focus four: how to solve the problem of excessive packaging? Refine specific industry standards and highlight the sense of responsibility of production companies

Experts in the industry believe that to solve the problem of excessive packaging, it is necessary to cultivate the public's concept of green consumption, but also need to strengthen the sense of responsibility of the government and the enterprise and promote the construction of relevant legislation.

National People's Congress deputies Zhou Hongyu and CPPCC National Committee member An Chunren expressed their desire to speed up legislative restrictions on over-packaging, promote the introduction of local laws and regulations by provinces, regions, and municipalities, so that laws and regulations can be followed.

The relevant person in charge of the China Packaging Federation stated that industry associations should also follow the principles of reduction, reuse, and resource based on existing national standards and local regulations, from the number of packaging layers, packaging materials, and effective packaging volume, In terms of the proportion of packaging costs, recycling of packaging materials, etc., specific industry standards for each series of products are formulated to guide enterprises in reducing resource consumption in packaging design and production.

Shen Yuedong, a researcher at the Shanghai Academy of Sciences and director of the strategic consulting department at the Shanghai Institute of Industrial Technology, believes that while over-packaging legislation should be strengthened, market adjustment measures should be adopted to impose a packaging tax on over-packaging companies or adding unrecoverable materials to packaging materials.

According to experts, Germany's experience in suppressing excessive packaging problems is worth learning from. German regulations require that “consumer fraud” should be judged to be a violation of consumer rights where the volume of the packaging is significantly greater than 10% of the product itself and the cost of packaging significantly exceeds 30% of the commodity. At the same time, Germany has also imposed a tax of 1.27 EUR/kg on traditional plastic bags, and fully biodegradable plastic bags are tax-free.

In addition, Shen Yuedong, experts in environmental science and resource utilization Xiong Mengqing and other industry insiders believe that to contain excessive packaging should highlight the sense of responsibility of production companies. In the early 90s of last century, France passed legal requirements: Whoever produces garbage will have to pay a price. After the introduction of this regulation, French manufacturing companies tried every means to simplify the packaging and facilitate recycling. The over-packaging problem was effectively curbed.