(I) The main means of controlling excessive packaging
With regard to the phenomenon of over-packaging, many countries in the world have reached consensus and gained considerable experience. Experts believe that these experiences can effectively control and reduce packaging waste in our country as a “stone to othersâ€.
At present, there are mainly three types of foreign control methods for over-packaging:
The first category is standard control, which sets limits for the volume of the package, the gap between the package and the product, the number of packages, the ratio of the package cost to the value of the product, and so on. Such as South Korea, Japan, Canada and other countries.
The second category is the control of economic measures, such as the collection of packaging taxes on non-paper-based packaging and on packaging that does not meet the recycling requirements, such as Belgium, and, in addition, directing consumers to choose simple packaging, such as the Netherlands, through garbage metering charges.
The third category is to increase the producer’s responsibility and stipulate that the commodity producer is responsible for recycling the commodity packaging. Usually the depository system can be used to entrust relevant commercial organizations to recycle the packaging. In order to facilitate recycling, the producer will actively choose to use less materials and can easily recycle. Package Design. Such as Germany, France and other countries.
In order to reduce the amount and hazard of solid waste production, many countries have begun to extend the production responsibility for the packaging of electrical appliances and other products. That is, producers must not only take responsibility for environmental pollution in the production process, but also need to Used packaging is responsible for recycling or disposal.
(B) reasonable packaging can be
In 1991, Germany published the "Regulations on Packaging", which for the first time required legal producers to impose obligations on producers and operators of packaging materials. Regulations have corresponding restrictions on the proportion and the number of layers of goods packaged in the entire product. For example, the empty space in the packaging container must not exceed 20% of the volume of the container, and the gap between the goods and commodities in the packaging container should be less than 1 cm. The clearance of the inner wall should be kept below 5mm, and the packaging cost should generally be less than 15% of the total cost of the product. Relevant departments also regularly inspect the packaging of goods on the market, reward the reduced-packaged goods, and impose fines on over-packaging. Japan’s “New Packaging Guidelines†clearly stipulates that packaging empty space must not exceed 20% of the packaging volume, packaging costs must not exceed 15% of the product sales price, and packaging should correctly display the value of the product. This quantitative definition is worth our country's reference.
In order to curb excessive packaging, many countries have specifically formulated relevant packaging regulations, such as the German "Circular Economy Law" and Denmark's "Container Container Recycling Law." In addition, the United States, Canada, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Brazil and other countries and regions have established similar packaging regulations. The European Union has also issued the "Designation of Packaging and Packaging Wastes." The "Cleaner Production Promotion Law" enacted by China in 2002 also made legal provisions for curbing excessive packaging: "Enterprises should rationally package their products and reduce excessive use of packaging materials and packaging waste."
(c) Collection of "green taxes"
For external costs of excessive packaging, the relevant government departments can also internalize them by collecting "green taxes." Whether manufacturers or consumers, if they insist on over-packaging, must pay a special tax on the external costs. In this way, the driver of the interests of the manufacturers will inevitably decline, and the irrational purchases of consumers will also converge. For example, Denmark has taken the lead in implementing the “green†tax system in the world, and the effect achieved is very obvious.
IV. Typical overpacking cases
The industry has reached a consensus that packaging is a "trade secret" that has more market value than quality and taste. It has been revealed that in the past, the outer mooncakes generally did not exceed the value of moon cakes; in the early 1990s, the price of ordinary mooncakes and mooncakes in the boxes became 1:1, and even the luxury moon cakes reached 2:1; A box of moon cakes costs more than 70% of Chinese and foreign packaging.
Not long ago, a citizen of Guangzhou was very surprised to receive a box of "Macro" mooncakes he had received. A square moon cake box, 60 cm long on each side and 20 cm thick, is about the same size as a suitcase. Taken a look, there are only 4 small moon cakes. Moon cakes are less than 1/50 of the size of the box! The phenomenon of excessive packaging like this is not surprising in the mooncake market. According to reports, the gross profit of ordinary mooncakes currently sold on the market is only 15 to 30%, while the gross profit of sales of luxury moon cakes may reach several hundred percent. Relevant statistics show that China's bakery industry has spent as much as 2.5 billion yuan each year on moon cake packaging. "Wool is on the sheep." This expenditure will eventually be paid by the consumer.
Luxury packaging not only costs the consumer a lot of money, but also causes damage to the environment and consumes a lot of valuable forest resources. According to the investigation of the forestry department, on average, for every 10 million boxes of mooncakes produced, 400 to 6,000 trees with a diameter of 10cm or more are to be used as packing boxes. This is equivalent to a forest with a large area. In addition, moon cakes will also use a lot of resources such as steel, plastic foam, and paper.
(a) (b) (c) (d) (e)