With the continuous development of economy, the problem of mitigation caused by packaging needs more attention. The process of packaging consumes energy and resources and produces industrial waste, which will also cause environmental pollution after abandonment. On the other hand, it is also necessary to pay attention to the effective protection of packaging and the embodiment of commodity value. Therefore, packaging reduction, recycling, degradable has become the appeal of the development of the industry, "green packaging" topic has been more widespread attention. Easy to recycle, easy to degrade, reuse has become a big issue in the packaging industry.

1、Biodegradable packaging, safe and environmentally friendly

Biodegradable packaging with plant starch as the main raw material, after use and discard, can compost degradation, will not cause white pollution. More importantly, this kind of packaging can fundamentally ensure food safety, recognized by food enterprises around the world. For example, Kore Kitchen, an American fast food distribution company, has comprehensively upgraded the packaging of fast food and salad dressing, upgrading the existing packaging to one made of corn, sugarcane and other plant-based raw materials, so as to minimize the large amount of waste generated by food and beverage distribution services.

Petcurean, an organic and non-GMO pet food manufacturer in Canada, has upgraded the packaging of its pet food to a sugarcane-based material. "As a food company, we are committed to providing nutritious and comprehensive food products for pets," said Rick van Schagen, director of Petcurean. In response to the needs of the majority of end consumers for health and environmental protection, we have made a comprehensive upgrade of pet food soft bags, the use of bio-based materials packaging, strict control of every link of the production chain, to create organic and healthy food for pets, while reducing the impact of packaging on the environment."

In addition, bio-based materials also have innovative applications in other fields, such as wine packaging, candy packaging, baked food packaging, pharmaceutical packaging, packaging of washing and care products, express packaging and other fields. Even in ordinary supermarket chains, the shadow of bio-based materials can be found. In the future, biodegradable packaging is expected to become the new favorite of the packaging industry.

2、Express box recycling, reduce environmental pressure

The rapid development of e-commerce brings convenience to people, but also brings a lot of garbage, express packaging recycling and reuse has been a big problem. Major platforms and logistics enterprises began to launch recyclable, recyclable environmental protection express packaging boxes. For example, Cainiao Network has introduced an eco-friendly container that can be reused. Since July 2016, Beijing Post EMS has been using recyclable "green packaging" and reusable environmentally friendly packaging containers for express delivery. In the "last kilometer", Beijing EMS will also use new-energy electric vehicles for transportation. In mid-April 2017, Suning announced an online "floating box plan" to replace ordinary cardboard boxes with recyclable plastic boxes.

In addition, a new foldable, inflatable and recyclable express packing case, developed by the team of Wu Huachun, Chang Jian E and Zhao Jingze from Wuhan University of Technology, will soon be put into production. The case is made of environmentally friendly PP plastic and has a built-in inflatable buffer air bag made of TPU material. The air bag achieves constant pressure inflation under the aid of constant pressure filling and suction equipment, so that the air bag can fully fit with the commodity, achieve the best buffer effect, better protect the commodity, so that it will not be damaged in the process of transportation.

The shape of this new express packing box is similar to storage box, not opened, like a rectangular plastic plate, open as long as the air bag spread in the express box, will need to express the items into, and then use constant pressure inflating equipment to inflate the air bag, so that the air bag and items fully fit, cover the lid, a express goods packaging is completed.

3、Oxygen barrier packaging film, to help consumers understand packaging recycling

Food companies will no longer have to choose between high barrier and recyclability after Nova Chemicals developed an oxygen barrier packaging film that is easy to recycle. Traditional meat, cheese, nuts and other snack foods can be packaged in this recyclable flexible packaging.

Packaging structure design expands on Nova Chemicals recyclable film design for moisture sensitive applications such as dried foods, mixes, frozen foods and confectionery. Both programs are certified and have earned the “Instore drop-off” packaging label with “How2Recycle”, a program designed to help consumers understand plastic packaging recycling.

Mike Cappelli, marketing manager for food packaging at Nova Chemicals, said: "The packaging meets consumer demands for lightweight, economical and sustainable packaging and has been recognised by customers, the industry and the environment. In addition, it can be used in a variety of flexible packaging, including standing bags, pillow bags and flowing liquid packaging.It is also possible to add zippers or accessories for custom packaging for single or multi-purpose applications."

4、Recycled plastics, give packaging a second life

With the development of the production technology of recycled PET woven bags, Starlinger & Co. GmbH of Austria has created an opportunity to give packaging a second life by making packaging using recycled PET pieces. This is a new technology that extracts raw materials from PET packaging such as plastic bottles to produce woven tapes. Remade into large bags and woven bags.

5、Woven bags made of recycled PET

Stephane Soudais, General Manager of Starlinger's Consumer bag Division, said, "With special properties such as hardness, effective oil and odor protection, packaging made from PET is ideal for all consumer products. PET is also one of the few plastics that can be recycled. Our technology can directly convert PET bottle pieces into woven strips, which can then be used to manufacture IC*STAR packaging bags and consumer goods packaging. The recycled PET woven bags can be recycled after use and can be used to make new woven bags or for other applications." Since last October in Germany K exhibition, it has attracted the attention of many stakeholders, especially the consumer packaging enterprises.

6、Packaging slim, for the enterprise to create profit space

From the current development trend of packaging, packaging lightweight has become a development trend. When a kind of packaging is successfully implemented after the lightweight, not only reduce packaging consumables, but also very beneficial to the environment, more importantly, it can also effectively reduce the cost of materials, for the enterprise to create more profits. At present, many domestic enterprises in order to save costs, has been in packaging lightweight efforts, such as packaging bags instead of cartons to save space, customized and so on, under the premise of ensuring the packaging function, constantly reduce product packaging, reduce packaging volume. At the same time, the demand of the terminal also drives the innovation of the industrial chain.

In the future, the packaging industry will continue to carry out technological transformation and innovation, improve production efficiency and raw material utilization, in order to save more social resources, and put advanced environmental protection concepts into actual production. At the same time, we also hope that the middle and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain can join hands to build a sustainable industrial chain of green packaging.