Make every effort to promote the green and environmentally friendly development of my country's plastic packaging industry

   With the continuous development of social economy and the continuous changes in the global environment, consumers' demands for environmental protection and conservation of product packaging are becoming increasingly strong. Traditional plastic packaging materials can no longer meet market demand. At the same time, the implementation of domestic policies related to environmental protection, green and degradable plastics continues to promote the green and environmentally friendly development of my country's plastic packaging industry.

     At the 2022 Packaging Industry Summit Forum held by the China Packaging Federation recently, many packaging companies conducted in-depth discussions and exchanges on sustainable development, digital construction, etc.

Low-carbon and green become a "must-have" for enterprises

     Under the background of "dual carbon", low-carbon green development is not only a way for enterprises to assume social responsibility, but also a development strategy for enterprises to adapt to the needs of the times.

     Wang Chuanlong, director of the Packaging Research Institute of Sichuan Yibin Plus Packaging Materials Co., Ltd., introduced that smart development is an innovative topic for the development of the industry. The company has explored this field for many years and achieved remarkable results. The company has made multi-dimensional efforts to build an intelligent packaging ecological value system.

     Zhang Qigang, technical director of Henan Yinjinda Holding Group Co., Ltd., proposed to take green products, green production processes, circular resource utilization, and green post-processing as production concepts. Taking the "application of rPETG new environmentally friendly low-carbon label materials" as an example, adhering to the source green design concept, the carbon footprint report shows that the purpose of energy conservation and emission reduction has been achieved. It is hoped that the production process can be further greened to achieve low-carbon win-win. In the future, it will focus on the development of lightweight and recyclable labels, crystallizable labels, environmentally friendly ink, and recycled polyester labels, and strive to solve the pain points of the industry, that is, to achieve the separation of bottles and labels. The company will continue to actively respond to the national call and create a green development system with clear system boundaries based on the full life cycle evaluation of products.

      Chen Liping, Chairman of Anhui Fengyuan Biotechnology Co., Ltd., analyzed the prospects of biomaterials in green packaging. He believes that the bioeconomy is about to usher in an explosive period, and the company is committed to making effective use of straw as a biomass raw material. Under the relevant requirements of the state, bioenergy and biomaterial products are processed and manufactured through biotechnology, polylactic acid replaces ordinary plastics and chemical fibers, and biomass industry is developed with bio-based polyurethane and bio-based polycarbonate. On this basis, the utilization and transformation of renewable resources are realized, and the "black gold economy" of petroleum and coal is transformed into the "green gold economy" of biomass processing, promoting agricultural development in an industrial way, achieving sustainable development, and helping my country's high-standard agricultural construction and black soil protection.

Innovative technologies promote recycling of plastic packaging

      Faced with the problem of difficulty in plastic recycling in packaging companies, companies are also actively exploring technological innovation and continuously promoting the recycling of packaging. Ma Rongrong said that it is necessary to reduce white pollution through effective utilization and recycling and seize the opportunities brought by sustainable development. The company should further join hands with partners to continuously promote the recycling of packaging on a larger scale. Since 2020, with the support of the China Packaging Federation, Amcor (China) Investment Co., Ltd. has joined hands with upstream and downstream industries to launch the first domestic packaging industry sustainable development environmental protection initiative and series of activities, aiming to call on industry colleagues to start from the source in environmental protection and consider recycling when designing.

Wang Daode took the "easy recycling solution of the same material" as an example to introduce the research and development of functional polyethylene. This is an exploration from more    plastics, reduced plastics to the same plastics, so as to meet the barrier requirements of downstream packaging materials as much as possible.

Gong Jian said that looking at the current market and industry status, companies are also thinking and exploring innovative paths, and have proposed "functional film projects and high-barrier single-material solutions". This solution focuses on the research and development of closed-loop recyclable film products, reducing overall costs, improving film performance, reducing the use of plastics and adhesives, and shortening the production process. Gong Jian introduced more new materials, including the single-material innovative structure of high-barrier flexible packaging, namely the ultra-high barrier high heat-seal PP aluminized film and transparent ultra-high barrier heat-seal PP film in the PP series and related materials. This material combines the barrier layer and the heat-seal layer into one, and can be used in the inner layer or middle layer of packaging with ultra-high barrier requirements, especially for replacing aluminum foil.

Wen Bo, President of Liaoning Dongsheng Group, pointed out that the potential space for degradable plastics is huge. At this stage, it is mainly driven by policies. Governments at all levels have stepped up efforts to promote plastic pollution control policies. In particular, the public has gradually accepted the plastic ban, and foreign-funded enterprises, chain brands and other industry leaders have taken the lead. Dongsheng Group will mainly build an industrial Internet cloud platform to connect customers and factories through self-construction or mergers and acquisitions, improve integrated service capabilities, and explore a way out for packaging companies through environmental protection and digitalization.

Digital reform stimulates new momentum for the industry

      As we all know, the packaging industry is large but not strong. Paper packaging companies are squeezed by the monopoly of upstream paper mills and the price pressure of downstream companies. How to reduce costs and increase efficiency has become a top priority for many companies.

      Zhou Mingxing, assistant to the president of Zhejiang Dongjing Technology Co., Ltd., shared how companies can find new ways to create blue oceans in red ocean markets from the perspective of digital reform. He emphasized that paper packaging is a "reserve for enterprises and a must-have for the industry" with a huge market volume and high potential value for digital transformation. By deepening the application of digital technology in many aspects such as production, operation and marketing, the paper packaging industry chain and paper packaging will be realized. Networking, digitalization, and intelligent transformation at both levels of the enterprise can achieve low-cost innovation, empower the paper packaging industry, and promote the upgrading and transformation of the paper packaging industry. The company has grown against the trend during the epidemic, and has also achieved remarkable results in order-taking models, informatization, production management, and logistics management. In the next step, the company will use the Internet and digital means to give full play to the enabling and leading role of digital technology in the development of the packaging industry, improve the paper packaging industry ecology, and help small and medium-sized enterprises reduce costs, improve efficiency and increase value.

       Facing new challenges faced by paper packaging factories in the post-epidemic era, Zhou Tianhai, director of the Intelligent Factory Division of Hubei Jingshan Light Industry Machinery Co., Ltd., discussed how to reconstruct the value of paper packaging factories from the perspective of Zhisheng Digital Union, and introduced the future trends and intelligent transformation and upgrading paths of paper packaging factories. He proposed an overall solution to the pain points and current situation of the industry, including a three-dimensional solution for intelligent planning of the entire factory, an intelligent software visualization operation and control center, core intelligent equipment for the entire factory, and intelligent logistics and non-standard automation equipment for the entire factory.

       Jiang Changbo, president of Hunan University of Technology, said that to improve the modernization level of my country's packaging industry system, we should focus on the coordinated development pattern and vigorously optimize the industrial regional layout; accelerate the adjustment of industrial structure, enhance the leading role of enterprises in the industrial ecology and the control of key nodes in the industrial chain; enhance the resilience of the industrial chain chain, promote the strategic coordination between the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain; promote the development of industrial clusters and form a leading packaging manufacturing cluster; enhance independent innovation capabilities, promote digital deep empowerment, and improve the cooperative development mechanism. He emphasized that building a modern packaging industry system is the common pursuit of all "packaging people" and an inevitable requirement for my country to build a "packaging power".

Plastic recycling system has not yet been fully established

"The pollution does not come from the plastic itself, but from the unreasonable recycling of plastic. Plastic packaging actually has less impact on the environment than other materials." Ma Rongrong, director of sustainable development for Greater China at Amcor, a leading company in the flexible packaging industry, said this when sharing the company's sustainable development practices.

"Nowadays, most plastic products are composite films, which are difficult to recycle or have low recycling value. The plastic recycling system has not yet been fully established, the recycling rate is low, the industry has not formed an industrial chain synergy, and the scale of product development and application is relatively small." Wang Daode, chairman and general manager of Zhejiang Chengde Technology Co., Ltd., frankly admitted the bottlenecks faced in the development of the industry.

When talking about global plastic pollution and countermeasures of the flexible packaging industry, Gong Jian, Sales Director of Jiangsu Caihua Packaging Group Co., Ltd., also said that the recycling of composite flexible packaging faces many problems, such as the difficulty of separating composite packaging and the great impact of foreign materials. In terms of key technologies for single-materialization, it is also necessary to try to improve the quality and reduce the amount of basic film materials, and enable the development of high-quality recycling processes for film surfaces and plastic flexible packaging and auxiliary material technologies.

"China Food News" (Page 07, March 01, 2023) (Editor: Yuan Guofeng)

Guangdong Jushi Chemical Co., Ltd. was established in 2007. It is located in B6, Xiongxing Industrial City, High-tech Zone, Qingyuan City, Guangdong Province. The headquarters covers an area of 250 acres. The company's registered capital is 93.33 million yuan. It is a national high-tech enterprise integrating the research and development, production and sales of modified period materials. Jushi Chemical has 10 subsidiaries, and its business is developing towards diversification and groupization. The company has a total of more than 1,100 employees, including more than 200 scientific and technological personnel engaged in research and development and related technological innovation activities. Jushi Chemical has an annual production capacity of 100,000 tons of modified plastics, and has more than 200 brands of products such as environmentally friendly modified polyolefin materials, modified engineering period materials, modified elastomer materials and functional masterbatches. The products are widely used in automobiles, smart home appliances, lighting, environmentally friendly cables, OA equipment, communications electronics, sanitary plastics, televisions, coatings and other industries.