Circular Economy Drives High-Quality Development of the Packaging Industry

Low-Carbon Development: Accelerating the Green Transformation and Upgrading of the Packaging Industry

The packaging industry is a service-oriented manufacturing sector closely related to the national economy and people's livelihood, and it holds a pivotal position in national economic development. In 2022, there were more than 9,800 packaging enterprises above the designated size nationwide, with operating revenue of 1.23 trillion yuan; total profits reached more than 63 billion yuan, down 14% year on year; total exports reached USD 5 billion, up 12% year on year; and total imports reached USD 14 billion, down 15% year on year.

Zhu Liyang, President of the China Association of Circular Economy, pointed out that achieving carbon peaking and carbon neutrality is an inherent requirement for promoting high-quality development. As an important part of the modern industrial system, the packaging industry actively implements the national strategic deployment of "advancing green development," takes the development of the circular economy as a lever, develops the green packaging industry, and promotes the high-quality development of the packaging industry, which is of great significance. Zhu Liyang believes that the high-quality development of the packaging industry plays an important supporting role in the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development. The packaging industry has considerable potential for pollution reduction and carbon reduction. Relevant data show that China's annual consumption of packaging materials is about 30 million tonnes, and packaging waste accounts for 30%-40% of the volume of municipal solid waste generated. Therefore, downstream consumer goods companies should work with upstream packaging manufacturers to explore green packaging solutions, strive to build a full-life-cycle green development system for packaging covering materials, design, and many other links, and drive the high-quality development of the packaging industry.

Xie Li'an, a second-level inspector of the Department of Consumer Goods Industry of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, made several suggestions. First, promote innovative development. Cultivate innovation entities, focus on key technologies, and carry out independent innovation on an ongoing basis; enterprises should increase investment and strengthen the building of technology centers and innovation teams. Second, strengthen green development. Reinforce the concept of green development and give full play to the role of packaging enterprises as a bridge and a guide in promoting moderate packaging and rational consumption. Third, restrict excessive packaging in all its forms and promote the green transformation of production and lifestyles. At present, GB23350-2021 Requirements for Restricting Excessive Packaging of Commodities - Food and Cosmetics has been issued, and it is hoped that the packaging industry can further implement the relevant work.

Fourth, implement the "Three Products" strategy. Packaging plays an important role in the circulation of commodities, and the development of the consumer goods industry will drive the development of the packaging industry. The packaging industry should continue to implement the Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Transformation and Development of China's Packaging Industry, organize and carry out the "Three Products" action, increase the variety of packaging products, improve the quality of packaging products, cultivate brands of packaging products, and promote the high-quality development of the entire packaging industry.

Yuan Huanming, a second-level inspector of the Jiangsu Provincial Development and Reform Commission, pointed out that during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Jiangsu supported an average annual economic growth of 6.3% with an average annual energy consumption growth of 1.6%, and the comprehensive utilization rate of general industrial bulk solid waste remained above 95%. As green packaging moves from concept to practice, the green packaging industry is not only closely related to people's daily lives but also of great significance to achieving the "dual carbon" goals and the circular economy. Next, the Jiangsu Provincial Development and Reform Commission will increase support for innovation, encourage enterprises to carry out independent research and development and the commercialization of results, cultivate a number of green packaging enterprises with international influence, and promote sound integration in the packaging field.

Xu Mingtao, deputy director of the Office of Military-Civilian Integration of the Suzhou Municipal Party Committee, mentioned that advancing the circular economy is an important direction for China's economic development and one of the effective ways to achieve the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals. As an important part of the circular economy, green packaging can not only effectively reduce resource consumption and energy waste but also effectively protect the environment and improve the ecology. Next, Suzhou will strengthen technological innovation, continuously improve the quality and technological content of green and low-carbon products, strengthen exchanges and cooperation between domestic and foreign enterprises, encourage enterprises to carry out independent certification and brand building, promote the green transformation and upgrading of the packaging industry, and enhance the market influence and competitiveness of green packaging.

Improving Standards: Promoting the Building of Green Packaging Certification and Recycling Systems

In the keynote speech session, a number of experts from the China Association of Circular Economy, the Resources and Environment Research Branch of the China National Institute of Standardization, and the Tsinghua Suzhou Environmental Innovation Institute shared their views on the green transformation and development of packaging, the improvement of the green manufacturing system, and other topics.

Zhao Kai, Executive Vice President of the China Association of Circular Economy, said that during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the foundation for the development of the packaging industry became more solid, the overall structure was optimized at a faster pace, innovation capacity continued to strengthen, and overall quality improved steadily. Facing challenges such as the complex and volatile international development environment and the market squeeze caused by ever-intensifying global competition, during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, work on green packaging needs to focus on developing green packaging materials, promoting green packaging design, building green supply chains and implementing green production actions, deepening the building of the green packaging certification system and the recycling system, and carrying out green demonstration projects, so as to practice the concept of circular economy development, guide the green transformation and innovation of the industry, and help make economic and social development greener and more low-carbon.

Lin Ling, Director of the Resources and Environment Research Branch of the China National Institute of Standardization, emphasized that standards are the basic tool for green and low-carbon transformation and upgrading and a binding means to achieve the goals of energy saving and carbon reduction. Lin Ling gave a comprehensive review of aspects including the construction and improvement of the green and low-carbon standards system, the building of the dual carbon standards and metrology system, the green product evaluation and certification system, and the key tasks of accelerating the standardization of green express packaging.

She said that next, the China National Institute of Standardization will implement the requirements of the National Standardization Development Outline and the Outline for Building a Quality Power, establish and improve the green packaging standards system, and at the same time carry out key actions such as the "dual carbon" standards foundation-strengthening action, the action to upgrade 100 energy-saving and carbon-reduction standards, the action to lead with low-carbon frontier technology standards, and the international cooperation action on green and low-carbon standards, so as to support the implementation of policies and serve market demand. The industry needs to strengthen basic standardization capacity and also needs more industry organizations, enterprises, and research and development institutions to participate together, so as to form high-quality standards and thereby drive the high-quality development of the industry.

Yao Xin, Vice President of the Tsinghua Suzhou Environmental Innovation Institute, pointed out that as a major manufacturing country, China sees the highest proportion of energy-related carbon emissions from manufacturing and construction from a consumption perspective. The consumption side is the lasting driving force for carbon reduction in all major fields, while the supply side is the fundamental way to achieve carbon reduction for all people; consumption-side management should also be treated as an important part of urban carbon emission reduction. He said that green consumption plays a very important transmitting role, and a green supply chain based on the full life cycle of products should be built.

Ding Xiangbin, Deputy Director of the Green Development Research Center of the Tsinghua Suzhou Environmental Innovation Institute, said that the product carbon footprint is an indispensable part of an enterprise's construction and management of a green supply chain, and is also an important tool for measuring green production, responding to green trade barriers, and leading the trend of green consumption. Judging from Suzhou's practical experience in green consumption, the demand side should have effective government guidance, active corporate action, comprehensive social mobilization, and broad participation by all people; the supply side needs to deeply integrate green concepts across the whole cycle and the whole chain, so as to establish a multi-dimensional green consumption pattern.

Active Practice: A Number of Companies Roll Out Sustainable Packaging Solutions

The forum also set up special sub-forums on "Brand Leadership Driving Green Development," "Innovation Driving High-Quality Industrial Development," and "Typical Circular Economy Model Cases," where representatives of brand companies and experts gave speeches.

Sui Jinguo, Vice President of Quality and Supply Chain for China at Haleon, said that by reducing carbon emissions, designing sustainable packaging, sourcing reliable materials in a sustainable way, and reducing waste and water use, the company incorporates green emission reduction into brand building, produces low-carbon goods, conducts low-carbon marketing, and implements low-carbon logistics, thereby fulfilling its commitment to sustainable development. It is learned that in order to achieve its goal of "making 100% of the packaging cartons of all its brand products recyclable by 2025," the company currently uses technical means such as "removal of shrink film from cluster packs" and "plastic reduction in outer packaging," starting from sustainable packaging design to reduce carbon emissions across the entire life cycle of packaging and promote the recycling and regeneration of post-consumer packaging waste.

Du Huanzheng, Director of the Institute of Ecological Civilization and Circular Economy at Tongji University, believes that although the packaging industry is relatively small in scale, packaging is crucial in product use, sales, transport, and storage. Du Huanzheng pointed out that under the "dual carbon" goals and in the context of plastic pollution control, the application of reusable express boxes can effectively control the generation of waste throughout the entire process and also reduce the carbon emissions brought by single-use packaging materials, thereby achieving the goals of lowering costs, controlling flows, reducing plastics, and saving energy and cutting carbon. He said that the promotion of reusable express boxes requires policy support, innovation in technologies such as packing/unpacking and recycling and cleaning, and the combination of business models. Pilots should be expanded first, and problems should be found, solved, and experience summarized during the pilot process, so as to form a replicable and scalable model and promote the development of the reusable express box industry.

Xia Xiaohui, Director of Packaging Paper Business Development at UPM (China) Co., Ltd., introduced that fiber-based materials, as one of the important materials for achieving plastic reduction in sustainable packaging, have complete and systematic life cycle assessment practices and applications, but it is still necessary to reasonably evaluate and select the application effects of fiber-based materials and processes in packaging plastic reduction according to application scenarios and the different characteristics of packaged goods, and then continuously summarize and promote circular economy models suitable for functional fiber-based materials.

——This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-379426.html