Trillion-Yuan Market, 70% Carbon Reduction and Biodegradable: Fashion Giants Rush to Upgrade Packaging Materials

In the trillion-yuan packaging industry, the folding carton sector can be called the last remaining industry where one can "eat big chunks of meat, drink from big bowls, and weigh out gold and silver." A gross margin of 28% for premium boxes and a market still climbing have also attracted more and more packaging giants.

Unexpectedly, starting in 2020, a global wave of plastic bans and restrictions suddenly swept in, throwing this industry into turmoil.

Because folding cartons use fossil-based materials in the mounting, gluing, lamination or varnishing processes, some folding carton manufacturers may face the risk of losing customer orders.

Fashion brands push green packaging initiatives

In 2019, Chanel, Hermès, Burberry, Prada, Armani, Adidas and others

32 global fashion and textile giants jointly signed the FashionPact environmental pact

, making solemn commitments around three major themes: slowing the trend of climate change, restoring species diversity, and ocean protection.

After the signing of FashionPact, brands placed greater emphasis on the concepts of "green, sustainable and eco-friendly," and gave more thought to how to integrate them into design and the industrial chain, including product outer packaging, which is most easily overlooked by the public.

In 2020, Gucci launched an entirely new packaging design in response to its sustainability vision

upholding the concept of environmental sustainability in both design and raw material procurement, with all materials green and low-carbon. Other fashion giants are also exploring, replacing their packaging materials with eco-friendly, carbon-reducing materials.

Folding carton packaging leaves no room for error

In 2020, China's total retail sales of consumer goods reached 31,190.1 billion yuan, and goods exports reached 17,932.6 billion yuan. Behind these two super-luxury figures is the prosperity of packaging orders for baijiu, cigarettes, consumer electronics, food, daily chemical products, pharmaceuticals and jewelry.

According to an analysis of a report by Alibaba.com, among the paper packaging categories in packaging and printing, gift boxes (giftbox) are the best-selling. The gift industry, which is linked to packaging products, is developing rapidly, and the hot sales of gift sets are driving sales of gift boxes.

Thanks to the upgrading of China's consumption structure and the post-90s generation becoming the mainstay of consumption, the new generation of consumers' fondness for attractive product packaging has further driven the prosperity of the folding carton industry.

However, on the inside and outside of these exquisite, high-end shopping bags and gift boxes with a strong sense of design, there is actually an ultra-thin plastic film. It provides functions such as matte finish, waterproofing, scratch resistance and enhanced tactile feel, and can directly elevate the texture of the packaging.

This ultra-thin plastic film is mostly made of petrochemical-based materials, which are difficult to fully degrade even over hundreds of years, and its production and use also increase carbon emissions and affect the ecological environment.

BIONLY enters mass production

In early June this year, an eco-friendly material independently developed by Xiamen Changsu -

BIONLY™ (a new bio-based degradable film material, BOPLA) was officially announced to be in mass production

, bringing domestic BOPLA products to the forefront of the world at once, and having broad positive significance for promoting packaging reduction and environmental carbon reduction.

Changsu has the thinnest and most technologically advanced BOPLA film product on the market, and its

raw material comes from starch extracted from plants, with good biocompatibility and degradability.

The person in charge of Zhonglun New Materials, the parent company of Xiamen Changsu, said that the company specially set up a technical team for this purpose, continuously adjusted raw material formulations and optimized process parameters, and after three years of repeated experiments and pilot tests, finally obtained a complete set of material formulation and process design,

"This large-scale production and application of BOPLA represents China's world-leading level in the field of biaxial stretching technology, and will effectively reduce the carbon footprint of products in the plastic packaging field. The carbon emissions of its raw materials are about 70% lower than those of traditional fossil-based plastics such as PP."

BIONLY™ has obvious advantages in printing performance and heat-seal performance, not only better displaying the colors and patterns of packaging, but also helping to reduce glue usage, making it environmentally friendly. In addition, it has good mechanical and optical properties and can meet the various effect and tactile requirements of big-brand packaging.

Sustainable fashion is a long and arduous road, but the brands exploring "sustainable fashion" will not stop for that. On this path of exploration, Changsu looks forward to meeting more brands by chance and working together toward the goals of promoting carbon reduction on Earth and the sustainable development of fashion!

——This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-378181.html