With the development of environmental awareness, the packaging industry is developing in the direction of green environmental protection. Such a development trend is bound to guide the development of more green packaging forms, such as paper packaging. The arrival of the paper packaging era has brought business opportunities to the paper industry, which is plagued by overcapacity.
Since the beginning of this year, there has been a new situation in the paper industry that has never been seen in 30 years. From January to October, the output of machine-made paper and paperboard in China was 97.34 million tons, with a year-on-year increase of 0.11% and almost zero growth. From May to September, the monthly output increased negatively. In October, the output of Uncoated Writing printing paper increased by - 9.49% year-on-year, including newsprint increased by - 11.81%. This is the main embodiment of overcapacity after rapid development. In such an external environment, the future of the paper industry is slim. The prevalence of paper packaging has brought a glimmer of vitality to the paper industry.
Green packaging can also be called pollution-free packaging and friends of the environment packaging, which is harmless to the ecological environment and human health, can be reused and regenerated, and is in line with sustainable development. Reduce, reuse, recycle and degradable are universally recognized 3R and 1D principles for developing green packaging.
The annual per capita consumption of packaging materials abroad is more than 100kg, 50kg in the United States, 200kg in Japan, 90kg in Germany, 80kg in cis and 30kg in China. In contrast, the annual per capita consumption of packaging materials in China is low, but China has a population of 1.3 billion, so the annual consumption of packaging materials is quite large. Therefore, green environmental protection has become the inevitable development direction of the packaging industry.
Paper is undoubtedly one of the most environmentally friendly packaging materials. Papermaking raw materials mainly come from natural plant fibers, which can be quickly decomposed by nature without polluting the environment. At the same time, they can also be recycled for papermaking, and the technology is mature. Paper materials are also used for pulp injection parts, composite materials, building materials and so on. In addition to the advantages of light weight, low price and shockproof, pulp molded products also have good air permeability, which is conducive to the preservation of fresh goods. In the international commodity circulation, they are widely used in the turnover packaging of fragile, broken and extruded goods such as eggs, fruits and glass products.
The world is calling for green packaging and cherishing the earth. Paper technology is bound to be widely used in the packaging industry. Green packaging will become the development trend of the packaging industry in the future. Replacing wood with paper, plastic with paper, glass with paper and metal with paper has become a common understanding of sustainable development.
Paper packaging based on paper and paperboard has the advantages of low cost, resource saving, easy machining, more environmental protection, no pollution, easy recovery and recycling. No matter the cartons used for transportation and packaging, or the cartons and paper bags used for the outer packaging of products, paper materials are the first choice. With the development of papermaking technology and the enhancement of environmental awareness, the traditional single paper material is developing in the direction of composite diversification. Composite paper, functional special paper and pollution-free plant fiber paper are constantly developed. The function and applicability of paper are not the same as before, and are gradually replacing the packaging of other materials.
At the same time, in recent years, food packaging began to move towards the era of paper packaging. The rapid development of China's food industry provides a broad development space for paper packaging. For food packaging, paper selection includes water absorption, water proofing, heat preservation, solar energy conversion, fruit residue paper, soybean residue paper, carrot paper, long-lasting mildew proof paper, preservative paper, pop top paper, propylene synthetic paper, foamed paper, self-adhesive wrapping paper, and rigid light wrapping paper. It is expected that in the future, circular economy will become the main development mode of the packaging industry, the recycling of packaging waste resources will be industrialized, green packaging materials will be vigorously developed and developed, and the basic packaging industry will also accelerate its development.
Under the homogenization trend of various commodities, packaging has become the third important factor to determine sales and establish brand image after commodity quality and after-sales service. From the original function of commodity protection and convenient use, packaging has developed to increase commodity value, shape brand and promote sales. Packaging design has become an important part of commodity marketing plan. As the first of the four major packaging, paper packaging, with the continuous development of paper materials and processing technology, has increasingly diversified modeling forms and more creative liquidity.
The appropriate and practical structure and novel and unique appearance have become important factors for businesses to improve the market competition of products and brands. Excellent paper packaging will break through the limitations of previous paper packaging, give full play to the advantages of good physical properties of paper materials and printing applicability, fully show the characteristics of paper packaging, such as capacity, protection, convenience, display, aesthetics and economic applicability, increase the added value of products and improve the sales ability.
It is reported that the total value of the global green packaging market this year is nearly 120 billion US dollars, and this figure is expected to be close to 178 billion US dollars by 2018. There is no doubt that China has become the largest packaging market in Asia. It is expected that China's packaging market will grow rapidly at an annual rate of 9.8% from 2011 to 2016, which will far exceed that of other Asian countries. Obviously, China's packaging industry has begun to enter the stage of industrial upgrading.
