Environmental packaging and environmental costs (on)

Abstract: Based on the review of green economy and green packaging regulations, in order to protect the environment and sustainable development, the environmental cost calculation of packaging is particularly carried out, and the four major principles of environmental packaging design are proposed.
Keywords: green economy; environmental packaging; environmental costs; packaging regulations

The United Nations held a conference on human environment in Stockholm, Sweden, from 5 to 16 June 1972, which triggered a worldwide green revolution. Some economists have incorporated environmental factors into the national economic accounting system to develop a new national economic accounting system. This is green GDP. Opened the curtain for a green economy.

According to the principle of economics, the process of increasing total economic output is bound to be a process of increasing consumption of natural resources and a process of environmental pollution and ecological destruction. From GDP, we can only see the total economic output or total economic income, but do not see the environmental pollution and ecological damage behind it. How large is the environmental cost in economic development? This is the issue that we must focus on.

1. Green Economy Green GDP

Green GDP refers to the green GDP. It is an adjustment to the GDP index and is the gross domestic product after deducting the environmental costs invested in economic actions. Over the past 10 years, many foreign experts have devoted themselves to this research and have made significant progress.

There are many countries that implement green GDP, mainly European and American developed countries such as Germany, France, Norway, Finland, the United States, and Japan. They started environmental accounting and incorporated environmental costs into product costs, with emphasis on mineral resources, biological resources, fluid resources (hydraulics), land, air pollution, and two types of water pollutants (nitrogen and phosphorus). To this end, they have established a detailed statistical system that includes energy accounting, forest accounting, and exhaust emissions, water excretions (mainly excrement for residents and agricultural processing), recycling of packaging waste, and environmental expenses, etc. The economic and green GDP accounting system has laid an important foundation.

Especially worth mentioning is Mexico. Mexico is a developing country and it has actually taken the lead in implementing a green economy and green GDP. With the support of the United Nations, Mexico included oil, forests, land, water, and air in the scope of environmental economic accounting in 1990. These natural assets and their changes were then compiled into physical indicator data. Finally, various natural assets were evaluated through valuation. The physical quantity data is converted into currency data. This led to the depletion costs of petroleum, timber, and groundwater and the cost of environmental protection losses on the basis of traditional domestic production NDP.

2. Green Packaging International Regulations

In June 1991, the United Nations held a conference on environmental and development in developing countries in Beijing and issued the Beijing Declaration. In June 1992, the United Nations held the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 116 heads of state and more than 8,000 representatives from 172 countries participated in the UN Rio Declaration on Sustainable Development of the Green Economy. The overall requirements are: (1) Human beings are at the center of environment and development, and the environment and development are inseparable; (2) Formulating policies for sustainable development, formulating policies, and formulating social and economic development plans and regulations Considering development as a whole; (3) Industrial development that does not harm the environment and a modest scale of consumption; (4) The order of eugenics for management objectives should reflect the context applicable to the environment and development; (5) Strengthen the protection and management of resources for development. . As a result, the legislative management of green packaging has entered a new stage of closed loop management of materials that is compatible with the environment and compatible with the environment.

Review of environmental and packaging development: Since 1978, industrialized countries in Europe have developed a green economy and have initiated the gradual introduction of “green signs” for product packaging in international trade to protect the environment and develop packaging. Any person who bears the "green mark" indicates that the product packaging meets the requirements of environmental protection from production to final use. A product package can only obtain a “pass” to enter the country’s market if it has obtained a country’s environmental label, or it is forbidden to enter the country. Since 1986, some EU countries have successively enacted relevant green regulations such as the “Packaging Waste Disposal Law” and prohibited the entry of packages that do not meet environmental requirements. In 1991, the European Union issued the "Packaging/Packaging Waste Directive."

After the “Rio Declaration”, in December 1994, the European Union issued a directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste Management, Directive 94/62/EC, on the environment and development requirements for imported product packaging. The country implements decrees or other measures as required. From January 1, 1998, only packaged goods that meet all major requirements can be sold on the EU market. The directive also includes the recycling and reuse of packaging waste. It is hoped that manufacturers and merchants will take responsibility for the environmental impact of the packaging waste of their products, and realize effective recycling and pollution prevention of packaging waste. The implementation of this decree puts forward clearer and more stringent requirements for how manufacturers in various countries deal with products and packaging.

Since January 1996, the International Organization for Standardization ISO has successively introduced a series of international standards such as "ISO14001 Environment System", "ISO14014 Environmental Label", "ISO14026 Life Cycle Assessment", and so on, to develop a green economy, standardize packaging, and promote the development of green packaging. It has played a very positive role. After several years of practice, companies all over the world have begun to carefully consider packaging design and material selection, and strive to increase the environmental performance, reduce waste, and reduce packaging costs while satisfying the protection, advertising, and descriptive nature of packaging. At the same time, the World Trade Organization’s WTO, Greenpeace International (GP), the International Brand Federation (IBF), local non-government environmental NGOs, etc. also emphasized environmental and development, product/packaging material recycling and recycling resources. use. These green packaging international regulations have contributed to the sustainable development of the green economy.

3, the development of green packaging and environmental protection

The legislative management of foreign green packaging is most representative in Germany and can be roughly divided into three stages of development. The first stage is the initial legislative management. The “Junk Decline Law” promulgated in June 1972 did not restrict the production of waste, so that in the following years, the growth of waste has remained high and still caused pollution to the environment. The second stage is the entire legislative management. That is, from the source to reduce the legislative management combined with the disposal of the end. Since 1980, people have realized that the deterioration of the environment is closely related to human society and economic activities. The recognition of environmental pollution has shifted from the simple governance at the end to the source of control. In 1986, the original "Law on Waste" was revised and the "Avoidance and Waste Disposal Law" was promulgated. Compared with past emphasis on waste removal, priority was given to avoiding or reducing the amount of waste generated, emphasizing recycling, and only for the present Waste that cannot be used by technology is incinerated or landfilled. The third stage is the legislative management of environmental elements. That is, the legislative management of the coordinated development of resource recycling and environmental protection.

In September 1994, the "Circular Economy Law" promulgated by Germany fully embodies the above guiding ideology. It differs from traditional GDP and green packaging in the following six points: (1) Emphasizes the management principles of comprehensive utilization of resources and closed material circulation. The first must be to avoid the generation of waste, in particular to reduce its quantity and toxicity; second, it must be recycled or used as an energy source; and the last remaining packaging waste is landfilled in an environmentally compatible manner. (2) Obligations to close the resource cycle. The packaging used can only enter the market if there is a right recycling or proper disposal guarantee for the produced waste; (3) It stipulates the manufacturer's responsibility for environmental protection, and the packaging product manufacturer has to avoid waste. Responsibility for the recovery, reuse and disposal of packaging waste, and the responsibility for production responsibility for its entire life cycle are proposed. When the toxic components of the product are too high to be handled and compatible with the environment, it is not allowed to enter the market; (4) It stipulates the environmental cost of packaging products. If a deposit is required, it shall indicate the demand; and the producer and seller of the product shall also provide for the obligation of recovery and related expenses. (5) It stipulates the obligation to protect the environment from packaging waste, that is, the product design must consider the closed cycle, low consumption, and less waste, etc., and encourage consumers to use cleaner production products; the waste has safe disposal measures. . (6) The requirements for final disposal methods and management supervision of environmentally compatible packaging wastes are specified. Packaging regulations in other countries generally follow the German “Circular Economy Law” and adopt policies and measures such as economic restraint, producer responsibility, economic incentives, legalized management, and the entire product life cycle management.

Looking at the world's green packaging regulations and related developments in various aspects, we can see that green packaging and environmental protection are undergoing the following eight changes: (1) Environmental protection and green economy awareness is now moving from local to global; (2) At the level, the internal affairs of each country are becoming internationalized; (3) the strategy is moving from "rule of law" to "economy", that is, the strategy will become the internalization of environmental costs through economic and market functions; (4) National laws and policies Increasingly sound and strict, it has introduced a series of effective measures for avoiding, recycling, using, and processing; (5) Introducing new-style environmental factor endowments (environmental taxation for packaging); (6) Clean production and ISO14000 environmental certification to promote sustainable enterprises Development; (7) Green economy awareness, green consumption movement and government's green economy policy, encourage the production and consumption of green packaging products; (8) The application scope of product life cycle assessment technology is continuously expanding.

Although China has promulgated relevant laws and regulations such as the "Solid Waste Pollution Prevention and Control Law", there are no specific regulations for packaging management. Since 2001, a number of notifications or temporary management measures have been issued to solve white packaging pollution. However, as the system is not smooth, the relevant laws and regulations are not perfect. Since China does not have special packaging regulations, the long-term problems that have plagued China's packaging waste have caused white pollution and have not been eradicated. On May 15 last year, the relevant departments of our country issued the "Report on Increasing the Quality of Environmental Protection Tableware Products and Investigating and Dealing with It". To completely solve this problem, we must rely not only on the executive orders of a certain department but only on the road to the rule of law.

China's GDP ranks seventh in the world, but per capita GDP is ranked 110th in the world. With the improvement of people’s living standards and the vigorous development of urban construction, the urban population in China will increase from the current 300 million to more than 500 million in a short time, and the total amount of packaging waste will increase at a rate of more than 10%. Without taking measures, the heavy burden of garbage on the environment will be unbearable. The negative impact on China's green economy and green GDP cannot be ignored, and it will also affect green packaging and environmental protection.

Although China has vast territory and vast territory, available resources, especially rare resources, are far from meeting the needs of economic development. The per capita possession of resources in China is ranked 110th in the world. The issue of environmental costs and legislative aspects of packaging management should immediately be mentioned on the agenda. The issue of recycling of packaging waste is urgently required to be standardized through legislative measures to promote the healthy and economic development of the economy and the environment.