Trends in the flexible packaging industry: eco-friendliness and energy saving

In recent years, China's flexible packaging enterprises have closely followed changes in market demand, adjusted their product structure in a timely manner, tilted resources toward profitable areas, and achieved product differentiation and structural diversification. According to predictions by authoritative institutions, in the next five years the global flexible packaging market will rise at an annual rate of 3.5%, and its output value is expected to reach USD 231 billion by 2018. As a major packaging country in the world, China must keep up with the pace of development of the packaging industry.

Flexible packaging refers to packaging whose container shape can change after the contents are filled or removed. At present, the market mainly offers various bags, boxes, sleeves and wraps made of paper, aluminum foil, fiber, plastic film and their composites. In the packaging industry, flexible packaging has become one of the most important packaging forms for shelf sales thanks to its brilliant colors, rich functions and diverse forms of expression. Because of its own advantages, it has gradually eroded the market of packaging materials such as metal and cartons.

With the continuous improvement of materials and processing technology, plastic flexible packaging is playing an increasingly important role in many fields. The development trend of plastic flexible packaging film is very obvious, and enterprises with small scale and poor quality have basically withdrawn from the market. Therefore, many enterprises, in conjunction with product structure adjustment, are accelerating the pace of large-scale production. On the whole, China's flexible packaging industry has formed its own basic industrial chain. Moreover, high value-added products are emerging one after another, such as BOPP heat-shrinkable film, antistatic film, high-clarity film, retort-resistant film, transfer film, high-gloss film, ultra-thin film and synthetic paper, which have gradually achieved industrialization. New products such as BOPP heat-resistant film, BOPP in-line coated film, and BOPP film with added nanomaterials used to make imitation glass and bulletproof glass have become new trends in the development of BOPP film. The green development path of flexible packaging: BOPP plastic film is a very important flexible packaging material. BOPP plastic film is colorless, odorless, tasteless and non-toxic, and has high tensile strength, impact strength, rigidity, toughness and good transparency. However, it also has problems such as being prone to accumulating static electricity, having no heat-sealing property, being difficult to recycle and being prone to contamination.

On the basis of its previous emphasis on quality and efficiency, China's flexible packaging industry now pays more attention to energy saving, consumption reduction, emission reduction and safety. Therefore, we must pay attention to strengthening technology to solve the problem that BOPP plastic film is prone to contamination. For plastic flexible packaging to achieve substantial development, it is necessary to improve production technology and reduce the use of raw materials.

The flexible packaging industry has broad market prospects, and competition among enterprises in this area will become increasingly fierce, so enterprises must grasp the correct development trend: environmental protection and energy saving. The meaning of green packaging is not only to protect the environment, but also to embody the significance of resource regeneration. In packaging design, enterprises should use the same material and materials that can be separated and coexist as much as possible, and should tend to use materials with simple structures that are easy to recycle and regenerate.

This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-373545.html. All rights belong to the original author; this article is for industry exchange and learning only.