New National Standard Released to Advocate Green Consumption, Limit Excessive Commodity Packaging

Commodity packaging serves to protect goods, beautify products, guide consumption and raise the added value of goods. Food and cosmetics are closely related to people's daily lives; at present some food and cosmetics enterprises on the market still have problems of excessive packaging, being non-environmentally friendly and wasteful, shown in too many packaging layers, excessive void ratio and excessive cost, beyond the basic functions of the packaging itself.

To solve the problem of excessive packaging of food and cosmetics, the State Administration for Market Regulation (Standardization Administration) together with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other departments organized relevant standardization technical committees and technical institutions to revise the 2009 edition of the standard and formulated and issued a new mandatory national standard, "Requirements for Restricting Excessive Packaging of Commodities—Food and Cosmetics" (hereinafter referred to as the "new standard").

Commodity packaging welcomes a new standard

It is understood that the new standard sets out requirements for packaging void ratio, packaging layers and packaging cost, as well as the corresponding calculation, testing and determination methods. In particular, it greatly simplifies the method for determining excessive packaging of commodities: consumers only need to look at the weight or volume of the commodity itself, measure the volume of the outermost packaging, and through calculation can make a preliminary determination of whether the commodity is excessively packaged. In addition, the new standard strictly limits the number of packaging layers: grain and its processed products among foods shall not have more than three layers of packaging, and other foods and cosmetics shall not have more than four layers of packaging.

As for how to judge specifically, Wei Hong, deputy director of the Standards Technology Department of the State Administration for Market Regulation, further explained that consumers can generally make a simple judgement of whether a commodity is excessively packaged through "one look, two questions, three calculations." "One look" means looking at whether the outer packaging of the commodity is luxury packaging and whether the packaging materials are expensive; "two questions" means, without opening the packaging, asking clearly about the number of packaging layers, and judging whether the packaging of grain and its processed products exceeds three layers and whether the packaging of other foods and cosmetics exceeds four layers; "three calculations" means measuring or estimating the volume of the outer packaging and comparing it with the maximum permitted outer packaging volume to see whether it exceeds the standard. If any one of these three aspects fails to meet the requirements, it can be preliminarily determined that the standard's requirements are not met.

The new standard also makes clear that the volume of the contents of food or cosmetics is expressed as net content multiplied by the necessary space coefficient, and the value of the necessary space coefficient depends on the product. Taking alcoholic beverages as an example, the necessary space coefficient for liquor is 13; a 500-millilitre bottle of baijiu is allowed a packaging void ratio of no more than 30%, from which it can be calculated that the maximum permitted volume of the outer packaging of this bottle of baijiu is 9,285.7 cubic centimetres. Suppose the length, width and height of the outer packaging of this bottle are 20 cm, 15 cm and 30 cm respectively; then the actual outer packaging volume is 9,000 cubic centimetres, less than the maximum permitted value, so it meets the standard's requirements.

Wu Daiqi, CEO of Shenzhen Siqisheng Culture Communication Co., Ltd., told a reporter from China Industry and Economy News that in recent years excessive packaging of commodities has mainly arisen because ordinary commodities have begun to focus on the gift market: for consumers giving gifts, exquisite packaging looks more grand and presentable, and since consumers only buy without using the product, they often do not know how large the item inside the box is; for merchants, more exquisite packaging with a large volume helps raise the added value of the product, and exquisite large packaging has become an essential element of high-end gifts. Over time, market competition has prompted merchants to put more effort into packaging rather than the product itself, resulting in excessive packaging of commodities.

"This time, the release of the new standard sets out in detail the number of packaging layers, the packaging void ratio and the product space coefficient and other specific content. For enterprises, compliance with the standard is quite clear; and for consumer complaints and law enforcement, the basis is also very sufficient and specific, which can better regulate the consumer market and promote green consumption," Wu Daiqi told reporters.

Relevant enterprises are given a two-year transition period

In the long run, excessive packaging of commodities brings not only financial consumption but also an impact on the ecological environment.

Some studies show that packaging waste in China accounts for about 30% to 40% of urban domestic waste, and most of this packaging waste is generated by excessive packaging. It can be seen that excessive packaging of commodities wastes resources and energy and increases the burden on consumers, while the packaging waste produced pollutes the environment.

The new standard released this time once again emphasizes the requirements for commodity packaging, namely to reduce resource consumption and the generation of packaging waste from the source and to lighten the burden on consumers.

The reporter noted that the new standard will be officially implemented on September 1, 2023, setting a two-year transition period for enterprises and the market.

Chen Hongjun, deputy director of the Standards Technology Department of the State Administration for Market Regulation, said on this that, considering that after the new standard is released food and cosmetics production enterprises need to design product packaging for compliance according to the new standard's requirements, and at the same time need to consume inventory packaging and goods awaiting sale—especially cosmetics, which have long shelf lives and relatively long circulation consumption cycles—a two-year implementation transition period has been set on the basis of widely soliciting opinions from relevant industrial departments, industry associations and enterprises, in order to avoid affecting production and business activities and creating new waste. During this period, enterprises should design product packaging for compliance according to the standard's requirements and put it into production and use as soon as possible; at the same time they should speed up the consumption of inventory packaging and goods already on the market, ensuring that products produced and sold after the standard takes effect comply with the new standard.

After the two-year implementation transition period, the market will no longer allow the production and sale of food and cosmetics that do not comply with the new standard. Enterprises are therefore urged to rectify and meet the standard as soon as possible within the transition period. Consumers are also urged to avoid buying excessively packaged commodities as far as possible, and to practise the concept of green and low-carbon consumption through their own actions.

Steady implementation requires efforts from multiple parties

On how to better implement the new standard, Wei Hong said: first, implement the primary responsibility of enterprises. Enterprises are the main body of standard implementation; food and cosmetics enterprises should, in accordance with the requirements of the Standardization Law and the Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste, effectively raise awareness, act proactively, fulfil their corporate social responsibility, implement, use and meet the standard as early as possible, and supply the market with higher-quality, greener and more environmentally friendly low-carbon products.

Second, strengthen the promotion and implementation of the standard. Market regulation departments will publicize the new standard in all aspects through various means such as one-diagram interpretations, standard explanations, standard disclosure and online cloud classrooms; at the same time, they will join with relevant departments to organize standard training activities and build up technical reserves for supervision according to law and standard.

Third, guide consumers to engage in green consumption. By strengthening publicity, a green consumption environment will be created, guiding consumers to consciously practise the concept of green consumption, advocate economy and reduce waste, actively buy green, environmentally friendly and low-carbon products, and not buy or use excessively packaged commodities.

In addition, Wu Daiqi believes that to advance green consumption, competent departments also need to strengthen supervision of enterprises—especially those for which holiday gift-giving is the main sales occasion; meetings can be held in a concentrated way to promote the spirit of the new standard, and association council units can be encouraged to take the lead and strictly implement the standard. As for enterprises, besides strictly implementing the new standard, they should also put R&D effort into the product itself and develop new products with different flavours and selling points to increase sales, rather than only focusing on packaging; as for consumers, they need to look rationally at the relationship between product value and packaging and not buy expensive but excessively packaged products out of concern for face—only when the vain market demand is gone can green consumption be advanced.

Bai Wenxi, vice chairman of the China Enterprise Capital Alliance, told a reporter from China Industry and Economy News that the new standard sets out the volume ratio between packaging and commodities, which will effectively curb the problem of excessive packaging. However, excessive packaging has its market foundation as a gift, and only by starting from the perspective of consumer culture and social psychology can the social foundation of excessive packaging be fundamentally changed and the standard's implementation truly advanced.

"To advance green consumption, competent departments, market entities and consumers should all actively promote the building of a green consumption culture from the perspective of pragmatic consumption and green consumption awareness; only then, supplemented by specific rule design and truly effective enforcement, can the problem of excessive packaging be fundamentally changed," Bai Wenxi said.

——This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-378402.html