No Criteria Issued Yet for Judging Excessive Packaging Materials

tea, has instead been replaced with plexiglass or even crystal bottle packaging; a 750 ml bottle of red wine is packed in a wooden box weighing about 2 jin. Relevant experts believe that although the current regulations on restricting excessive packaging of commodities set corresponding limits on the number of packaging layers and the void ratio, there are still no mandatory provisions on packaging materials, and they suggest that the relevant regulations soon to be issued should cover this.

Excessive packaging materials not yet restricted

With the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival approaching, mooncake gift boxes and health products will become the main sellers in shopping malls and supermarkets, and excessive packaging of gift boxes will once again draw people's attention.

At a forum against excessive packaging held by Sohu Green, the Food Packaging Association and other organizations, Li Minggang, director of the First Division of the Legal Affairs Department of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, pointed out clearly that the material, structure and cost of packaging can all cause excessive packaging. In March this year the state approved and issued the Requirements for Restricting Excessive Packaging of Commodities — Foods and Cosmetics, making the void ratio in the structure mandatory at 60%, the number of packaging layers mandatory at no more than 3, and the cost at no more than 20%. "Material is also an indicator for judging whether packaging is excessive, but at present the regulation does not make material a mandatory requirement," Li Minggang stressed.

Surveys in supermarkets and shopping malls found that commodity packaging with more than 3 layers is relatively rare, and the previous problem of excessively large packaging void ratios in gifts such as mooncakes and health products has been reduced somewhat, but the materials used for packaging boxes are becoming ever more complex and varied.

According to Dong Jinshi, secretary-general of the Food Packaging Association, packaging materials on the market today involve seven or eight kinds, including metal, glass and silk, and some are used in combination, which creates trouble for the recovery and reuse of packaging. This is because packaging made of different materials requires different processing techniques. Dong Jinshi suggested that the Regulations on Restricting Excessive Packaging of Commodities, soon to be issued, should specify the types of packaging materials, and that packaging should preferably use a single material or materials that are easy to separate.

Nine in ten consumers accept simple packaging

A random survey conducted by the Food Packaging Association showed that 91% of people said they could accept simple packaging in which packaging costs account for within 10% of total sales, while only 9% said they could accept relatively exquisite packaging with costs within 20%. For excessive packaging with costs above 20%, no one is willing to actually pay. This shows that even when giving gifts, most people are willing to give something of real value rather than spend their money on packaging.

The problem of excessive packaging of commodities appears not only in gifts; at present, medicines and cosmetics also suffer from excessive packaging. Some consumers report that when buying a box of medicine at a pharmacy, the packaging is usually quite exquisite — not only is there a paper box on the outside, inside there is also

packaging, and only then the 8 tablets in foil blister packaging. This pack of medicine may sell for 20 yuan, but not much of it actually goes to the medicine itself. Buy an eye cream, and the outer packaging of a 25 ml bottle may look like more than 200 ml. Relevant data show that spending on gift box packaging alone reaches more than 2 billion yuan every Mid-Autumn Festival.

On the question of commodity packaging recovery, 37% of people said that if shopping malls and supermarkets set up recovery facilities, they would be willing to cooperate with merchants and bring the packaging back to the mall, while another 37% said they would consider cooperating with this kind of recovery approach by merchants.

Unreasonable design also causes packaging waste

Yu Duyuan, deputy general manager of the Technology Center of China National Packaging Corporation, who attended the forum, pointed out that if the structural design of commodity outer packaging is unreasonable, a box that could originally hold eight items may hold only four, which in fact unintentionally also creates the problem of excessive packaging.

China Resources Vanguard will join hands with suppliers to curb the problem of excessive packaging of commodities.

Last year, retail giant Walmart also joined hands with suppliers to tackle and reduce unnecessary waste in transport costs, storage costs and packaging materials caused by excessively large packaging void space.

Ordinary commodities should be subject to restrictions on excessive packaging to avoid waste, but for special commodities with very high value, such as rings, ginseng and handicrafts, different treatment may be required. Experts at the forum believe that some commodities may need excessive packaging to reflect their value, and that appropriate excessive packaging for special commodities may be a kind of necessity — a need for "face" or a need of the product itself.

——This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn), original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-362205.html