Thoughts on Local Legislation to Restrict Excessive Packaging of Commodities

[ppzhan abstract]

In recent years, the excessive packaging of goods has increasingly become a focus of public attention, and the media have repeatedly exposed and criticized the problem. Excessive packaging is a fairly widespread phenomenon, involving many categories of goods such as tea, tobacco and alcohol, health products, cosmetics, stationery and clothing, and most of the packaging materials are paper boxes and bags, glass bottles, plastic products, and metal boxes and cans. For Shanghai, among the harms caused by excessive packaging, the more pressing one is the disposal of garbage and waste. At the Municipal People's Congress in January this year, deputies jointly submitted a motion calling for legislation to restrict excessive packaging of goods.

In recent years, the excessive packaging of goods has increasingly become a focus of public attention, and the media have repeatedly exposed and criticized the problem. Excessive packaging is a fairly widespread phenomenon, involving many categories of goods such as tea, tobacco and alcohol, health products, cosmetics, stationery and clothing, and most of the packaging materials are paper boxes and bags, glass bottles, plastic products, and metal boxes and cans. In some product sectors, packaging materials are becoming increasingly upscale, with precious wood, metal, silk and leather by no means rare, and even pure silver, pure gold and crystal items appearing. Compared with the analytical data showing a packaging recovery rate of less than 20%, the waste of resources is self-evident.

For Shanghai, among the harms brought by the excessive packaging of goods, the more urgent issue is the disposal of garbage and waste. Shanghai is a mega-city with a highly dense population and a severe shortage of land resources, producing nearly 20,000 tons of domestic garbage and waste every day, which is mainly handled by landfill. At present, the existing landfill sites are becoming increasingly saturated, and residents living near them have repeatedly voiced complaints about the odor and pollution. Reducing garbage and waste at the source has become an inevitable choice for Shanghai's urban operation and management, and restricting the excessive packaging of goods is naturally an integral part of that.

At the Municipal People's Congress held in January this year, deputies jointly submitted a motion demanding legislation to restrict the excessive packaging of goods. Prior to that, the Standing Committee of the Municipal People's Congress had set up a working team and launched legislative research on restricting excessive packaging of goods. In February this year, restricting the excessive packaging of goods was listed by the Standing Committee as a formal legislative item. Legislation in Shanghai to restrict the excessive packaging of goods is now on the verge of being introduced.

As far as restricting the excessive packaging of goods is concerned, although the room for local legislation is limited, positive results can still be achieved as long as we take a long-term view, adapt to actual conditions, and make use of existing legal resources and give full play to a guiding role. At present, research and breakthroughs can be made in the following areas:

1. Expand the space for local legislation by stipulating reductions in packaging materials.

Because the superior-law basis for restricting the excessive packaging of goods is relatively lacking, local legislation has limited room for setting legal liability and restrictive measures. By stipulating reductions in packaging materials, however, it is possible both to set certain appropriate binding provisions — for example, where national mandatory standards already exist, setting necessary legal liability and restrictive measures within the limits of local legislative authority in order to implement those national mandatory standards — and to provide space for guiding and incentive measures and corresponding provisions. Moreover, starting legislation from the reduction of packaging materials makes it easier to build social consensus.

1. Achieve source control by transmitting supervision at the sales stage back to the production stage. Shanghai is an open, large market: about 90% or even more of the goods in circulation come from home and abroad, while goods produced locally account for less than 10%. If constraints were imposed at the source, that is, at the production stage, it would obviously be impractical. Supervising the sales stage has an indirect effect, but it suits Shanghai's actual conditions, and as long as guidance is proper, its transmission to the production stage is also effective. This is because: First, taking the sales stage as the point of focus can create general constraints on product packaging, including the packaging of goods produced in Shanghai. Second, in the current market environment where supply exceeds demand, sales enterprises generally have a greater say than production enterprises, and through contractual agreements and incoming-goods inspection, sales enterprises can transmit restrictive provisions to production enterprises. Third, the sales stage is closely connected with consumers, and relying on public oversight is precisely an effective means by which legislation can take effect.
2. Give play to the effectiveness of supervision and management by clarifying the responsibilities of the administrative departments. The regulation of excessive commodity packaging in Shanghai should preferably be the responsibility of the municipal quality and technical supervision department, with whole-process supervision implemented, that is, the management responsibilities for both the production and circulation stages should be borne mainly by the municipal quality and technical supervision department. This will ensure clear supervisory responsibilities and well-defined work duties, and avoid buck-passing caused by unclear departmental responsibilities, or management gaps arising from the practice of "railway police each minding their own stretch of the line." From an operational perspective, commodity packaging involves technical standards, which fall precisely within the remit of the quality and technical supervision department. Therefore, having the municipal quality and technical supervision department take charge of supervising efforts to restrict excessive commodity packaging makes it easier to secure support for the implementation of the regulations. At the same time, the corresponding responsibilities and duties of coordination and cooperation of other relevant departments, such as industry and commerce, food and drug administration, development and reform, commerce, economic information technology, environmental protection, and landscaping and city appearance, must also be clearly defined.

Besides regulating and constraining, laws and regulations also play a very important guiding and steering role. Since the inclusion of guiding provisions leaves relatively greater room for local legislation, legislation restricting excessive commodity packaging should attach full importance to, and strive to expand, the use of guiding provisions and incentive measures. For example, incentive measures should be formulated for the recovery of packaging materials to mobilize the enthusiasm of manufacturing and sales enterprises; in institutional design, enterprises should be encouraged to give priority to the use of renewable and recyclable packaging materials; and enterprises should be encouraged to clearly indicate on commodity packaging information such as the recycling and reuse of packaging materials and packaging costs. Among guiding provisions, giving play to the role of industry associations is particularly important.

As early as the mid-1990s, the relevant industry associations in Shanghai took the initiative to address the excessive packaging of mooncakes, launching industry standards that played an important role in standardizing mooncake packaging in Shanghai. Therefore, it is necessary to define in legislation the position of industry associations in the work of restricting excessive commodity packaging and reducing commodity packaging materials, to encourage and support industry associations in formulating commodity packaging material standards higher than national or local standards and in guiding and promoting them among relevant enterprises, and to encourage and support industry associations in organizing and carrying out certification of simplified packaging within their industries under government guidance.

— This article is reposted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-362065.html