Chinese Government Rolls Out Preferential Policies for Green Packaging

The Chinese government is further increasing its support for the environmental protection industry. On August 27, 2008, the Ministry of Finance issued the Measures for the Management of High-Tech R&D Funds for the Packaging Industry, making clear that, in order to standardize the management of high-tech R&D funds for the packaging industry, support the packaging industry in actively developing new products and adopting new technologies, and promote the development of the circular economy and of the green, environmentally friendly packaging industry, from that day on enterprises that meet the provisions will have the opportunity to obtain support of up to RMB 5 million yuan in R&D funds. The scope of support for R&D funds includes projects of a leading or comparable level, new environmentally friendly packaging material projects that safeguard personal health and safety and meet environmental protection requirements, packaging reduction and energy-saving projects, and packaging waste treatment and utilization projects, that is, projects conforming to national macro policies and to environmental protection and circular economy policies. R&D funds are provided mainly in two forms: non-repayable grants and interest subsidies on loans.

Countermeasures and suggestions for promoting green packaging: establish a green packaging evaluation system

At present, life cycle assessment (LCA) still faces great difficulties in practical operation in China; for example, the calculation work is a very complex and tedious task, and both the workload and the difficulty are considerable: the central step of LCA, the collection of inventory data, is difficult; and for the impact assessment of LCA, it is also very difficult to determine the various equivalence coefficients and weights, as well as to convert between the dimensions of the various quantities. Therefore, the conditions for carrying out LCA are not fully in place at present, and it cannot yet be widely applied; a fairly long preparation process is needed. In view of this, in order to promptly advance the development of green, environmentally friendly packaging, we need to adopt a two-step approach, first classifying green, environmentally friendly packaging into grades and applying different grading review standards.

AA-grade green, environmentally friendly packaging. This refers to moderate packaging whose waste can be recycled and reused, regenerated or degraded, whose content of toxic substances is within the specified limits, and which causes no public hazard to human health or the environment throughout the entire life cycle of the product. For AA-grade green, environmentally friendly packaging, LCA may be used to formulate certification standards, or its inventory analysis and impact assessment data may be used directly as evaluation standards, and the corresponding ISO140001 Type I and Type III environmental labels are awarded. A-grade green, environmentally friendly packaging. This refers to moderate packaging whose waste can be recycled and reused, regenerated or degraded, and whose content of toxic substances is within the specified limits.

For A-grade green, environmentally friendly packaging, five operational indicators may be formulated according to its definition, namely whether it is reduced in quantity, whether the toxic and harmful components contained in the packaging materials exceed the standard, whether the packaging product bears the manufacturer's "self environmental declaration", whether the packaging product can be reused or recovered and regenerated, and whether the packaging product can degrade on its own; those that meet the indicators may be awarded a single-factor environmental label.

Establishing China's green, environmentally friendly packaging evaluation system involves the entire process of manufacturing, using, recovering and discarding packaging products, and also involves China's foreign trade law, inspection and quarantine regulations and other packaging laws and regulations. We must proceed from the strategic height of sustainable development and establish a green, environmentally friendly packaging system that includes many aspects such as national legislation, departmental supervision, industry coordination, enterprise implementation, support from scientific research institutions and broad public participation, and that can operate effectively.

Improve laws and regulations; establish an operating mechanism for green, environmentally friendly packaging

The selection of materials and the amounts used for packaging, as well as the discharge of waste gas and wastewater during manufacturing and the recovery, reuse and regeneration of packaging waste, must all be achieved by relying on laws, regulations and other administrative and economic measures and means.

, we must strengthen the development of laws and regulations.

A series of major national laws, including the Environmental Protection Law, the Cleaner Production Promotion Law, the Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste, the Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law and the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law, provide a strong legal guarantee for protecting the environment. However, supporting regulations that take into account the actual situation of the industry still need further improvement.

Second, use the tax lever to adjust the relationship between enterprise interests and public interests. Most packaging manufacturers and importers in China focus only on their own interests and rarely take the natural environment and public interests into account on their own initiative, and in the production process they are accustomed to using virgin materials and are not used to using recycled materials. In order to further strengthen the awareness of a conserving economy and advance the recovery of packaging waste, it is suggested that an environmental pollution tax be levied on packaging production enterprises and on manufacturers and importers that use packaging, on the difference between the total amount produced or imported and the amount of packaging recovered, and that the larger the difference, the higher the tax rate levied. There are long-standing precedents for this practice abroad.

Third, specify the recovery targets for packaging waste and establish a society-wide mechanism for the recovery of packaging waste. Increase funding input and support research and development work on green, environmentally friendly packaging.

Fourth, carry out extensive publicity and education to create a favorable social atmosphere for green, environmentally friendly packaging. Units in interrelated fields such as technology, law, management and education should pool their wisdom and efforts to contribute together to implementing the circular economy and conserving economy policies and to developing the cause of green, environmentally friendly packaging.

——This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn), original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-362246.html