Green Packaging Food Packaging Trend

[China Packaging Network News] At present, China's food packaging materials, plastic applications have exceeded 50% of the total amount of food packaging materials, ranking first in a variety of packaging materials, most of the plastic food packaging can not be recycled, causing environmental damage. Therefore, we should vigorously develop green packaging. All kinds of food packaging also have their own characteristics. At the "3rd Food Packaging Whole Industry Chain Safety Forum" held in Tianjin not long ago, the participants discussed in detail the problems of biodegradable plastics, cold chain packaging, smart packaging and food safety.

Not long ago, the "3rd Food Packaging Whole Industry Chain Safety Forum" hosted by Meishi Media Group, co-organized by the China Packaging Federation, and supported by the International Plastic Packaging Chamber of Commerce and the International E-Commerce Packaging Chamber was held in Tianjin. Participants elaborated on the different characteristics of various packaging and future development trends.

Data - shocking to implement green packaging is imperative

Li Yajuan, president of Jinhui Zhaolong High-tech Co., Ltd., shared a set of data: Metal packaging in China's food packaging accounted for 8% -10%; paper packaging 32% -35%; glass packaging 4% -6%; other packaging about Accounted for 4%; plastic packaging is greater than 50%.

At present, China's food packaging materials, plastic applications have exceeded 50% of the total amount of food packaging materials, ranking first in a variety of packaging materials. Most plastic food packaging cannot be recycled.

ASD’s latest research report shows that China’s average daily use of plastic bags is 5-8, most of which are disposable plastic bags. China’s annual disposable plastic bags consume about 1 million tons. Other food packaging is conservatively estimated at more than 2 million tons.

At present, the daily express delivery volume in China has reached 60 million. The use of tape is 17 billion meters per year, and the use of plastic bags has reached 8.2 billion. It is expected that by 2020, the national express delivery volume will reach 50 billion pieces, 20 billion plastic bags and 7 billion bubble buffer bags.

Judging from the current data of the three major take-away platforms, the average daily order volume is about 7 million units or so. Each single package includes disposable plastic chopsticks, plastic spoons and soup cups in addition to three plastic lunch boxes and one or two plastic bags. , straws, etc., these disposable catering products will not generally enter the recycling system. It is estimated that the annual consumption of disposable plastic lunch boxes and various foam packaging in China is close to 500,000 tons.

Looking back at the world, about 8 million tons of plastic waste enter the ocean each year, and China accounts for nearly one-third. Waste plastics float in the global ocean, and there are currently more than 150 million tons of plastic waste in the ocean, covering 88% of the area. Ninety per cent of seabirds die from eating plastics, resulting in global economic losses of at least $13 billion a year.

According to relevant data, food packaging accounts for about 60% of the total packaging industry. The annual output of plastic packaging in the world reaches 80 to 120 billion U.S. dollars, but 95% of these plastic packages are used only for a single use. At the end of the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period, China’s total stockpiles of waste plastics have reached 8.8 billion tons, and the cost of disposal of these waste plastics is 55 times that of its cost, such as natural decay requiring more than 200 years.

How to deal with plastic waste? The incineration of waste plastics produces a large amount of toxic gases such as dioxins, causing secondary pollution and greenhouse effects. Landfilling is the main method used by most cities in China to dispose of rubbish. The accumulated land occupied by rubbish exceeds 750,000 mu, and the economic loss is 30 billion yuan each year. Nowadays, tens of thousands of suburban landfills have been closed. Degradation of plastics takes more than 200 years and precipitation of additives can contaminate soil and groundwater. The heavy use of non-degradable plastic packaging has caused serious white pollution and brought irreparable and huge damage to the ecological environment.

It is igniting a glimmer of hope that the domestic ban on plastics policy is alleviating the pressure on plastic waste and that the world is also promoting the use of plastics. Countries are pushing for green packaging.

Biodegradable plastic packaging market has great potential

Jinhui Zhaolong High-tech Co., Ltd. Li Yajuan said that the demand for biodegradable plastics has continued to increase in recent years. The market demand for biodegradable plastic packaging will maintain an average annual growth rate of more than double digits between 2016 and 2019. By 2019, the global market value of biodegradable plastic packaging will exceed US$8.415 billion. Based on this forecast, food and beverage packaging will be the major application areas for biodegradable plastics, and biodegradable plastics used for food packaging will account for more than 70%.

In recent years, active exploration and research of biodegradable compostable plastics, PBAT (polyadipate/butylene terephthalate), PLA (polylactic acid), PBS (polybutylene succinate), and PHA have been actively explored at home and abroad. Polyhydroxyl fatty acid ester), PHBV (polyhydroxybutyric acid-valerate), etc., among which, PBAT has good ductility and elongation at break, good processing performance, and it has become a new type of environmental protection with great development potential. material.

Biodegradable compostable new plastic solves white pollution at the root. It has the same properties as traditional plastics; it can replace traditional plastics into various products and effectively combat white pollution; it can promote economic growth and ecological sustainable development.

The biodegradable plastic PBAT is the best film packaging material solution in the case of non-reducible use, secondary use and unfit for recycling.

Representatives of Guangzhou Minde New Material Co., Ltd. explained the definition and application of biodegradable materials. Fully biodegradable plastics are obtained by microbial fermentation or synthesis of biodegradable macromolecules from natural polymers (such as starch, cellulose, chitin) or agricultural and sideline products. Bio-based materials are the absolute main body and degrade into carbon dioxide and water. Wait. Destructive biodegradable plastics mainly include starch-modified (or filled) polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polystyrene (PS), etc. The plastics are the main components, which are partially degraded and the plastics are fragmented.

Currently, biodegradable materials are used in simple applications including shopping bags, garbage bags, agricultural films, etc. Medium applications include lunch boxes, electronic product components, simple packaging applications, etc.; depth applications include 3D printing, printed composite film/hard plastic Such as fine packaging, medical equipment. The Chinese market is temporarily based on simple applications.

High value-added product temperature control packaging business opportunities

Prof. Wang Jun from the Department of Transportation Packaging and Cold Chain Logistics at Jiangnan University stated that packaging involves two things: the packaging of electrical products is to control breakage, and food packaging is used to maintain or extend the shelf life. The three major trends in food packaging are full nutrition, full quality, and full safety. Full nutrition - from the field to the consumer; full quality - from source to end; full safety - raw material safety, manufacturing safety, logistics safety, food safety.

Wang Jun said that the total output value of the packaging industry in 2002 was more than 250 billion yuan, and in 2015 it exceeded 1.5 trillion yuan. The overall level of China's packaging industry started late, the technology is weak, the scale of the company is small, the R&D investment is small, and the technological innovation capability is seriously insufficient. There is a 20-year gap with the developed countries. At present, the overall cold chain circulation rate in China is only 19%, while the cold chain circulation rate in developed countries such as the United States and Japan reaches more than 85%. The customer group of cold chain logistics delivery can be divided into B2B and B2C markets. According to data released by the Ministry of Commerce in 2014, B2B accounted for 3/4 of the overall market, and B2C accounted for 1/4 of the total market. The B2C market is affected by the development of e-commerce, and its average annual growth rate has reached 80% to 120% during the three years from 2012 to 2014. In 2015, the cold chain logistics delivery market reached RMB 4 billion.

The cold chain targets temperature-sensitive products such as food, medicine, biological products, and fresh produce.

There are two ways of cold chain logistics: active cold chains and passive cold chains. The active cold chain is a cold storage and refrigerating vehicle that uses active refrigeration equipment. Its characteristic is stable and reliable, but it is only suitable for storage and transportation of large quantities of products, and is generally used for B2B. Passive cold chain uses passive cold storage technology incubators and coolers. Its characteristics are compact and flexible, can be applied to scattered products and "last mile", generally used in B2C.

Temperature-controlled packaging absorbs excess heat through a phase change process of the coolant. The insulation material reduces the heat exchange inside and outside the package. Temperature-controlled packaging requires that the surface area of ​​the outer packaging container is as small as possible; the phase transition temperature of the coolant is in line with the product requirements; the cold storage of the coolant is long.

For the main problems in the current insulation packaging materials, Wang Jun thinks there are three major problems, first of all, "white pollution." He said that petroleum-based foaming materials are currently the most cost-effective insulation materials, but they cannot be naturally degraded and have limitations in terms of export products. Second, the cost is high. PU and aerogel have excellent thermal insulation properties, but their raw materials and processing costs are too high, which severely restricts their popularization and application. Third, the recycling problem. At present, the thermal insulation containers are generally used once. There is a huge waste of resources.

With regard to the development direction of insulation packaging materials, Wang Jun said that biodegradable petroleum-based foaming materials are one direction, and bio-based insulation materials use biomass-based raw materials, adopting microwaves and other new foaming processes, and developing environment-friendly new insulation materials. In addition, the collapsible, recyclable heat-retaining container and its recovery mechanism are also the development direction of the heat-insulating packaging material.

There are still some problems in the application of cold storage agents. First, the phase transition temperature is too narrow. At present, the phase transition temperature of low-temperature coolant is mainly -18 °C, 0 °C -2 °C, and 2 °C -10 °C required for bulk fruits and vegetables are costly and the latent heat of phase change is lower. Second, the rate of cold storage is slow. Because the cold storage of the cold storage is mainly cold storage static storage, and the thermal conductivity of the storage agent is low, resulting in low heat exchange efficiency, slow storage speed, affecting the use of efficiency. Third, the cost is too high. Because the current cold storage agent recovery mechanism is not perfect, the cost of temperature control packaging is high and cannot be widely applied.

Refrigerant research and development focus and development direction has three: First, the development of high-performance cold storage agent 2 °C -10 °C; Second, the rapid development of cold storage technology research and development. By increasing the thermal conductivity of the coolant, and developing a new dynamic cooling technology to increase the cold storage speed of the coolant. The third is to establish a refrigerant recycling mechanism.

Wang Jun believes that temperature-controlled packaging is challenging, lacks basic data for temperature-controlled packaging, and standards are almost blank. The last-mile and cost issues, transportation efficiency issues, and reuse and reuse issues all need to be resolved. The problems and opportunities coexist, and high-value-added product temperature-control packaging business opportunities are emerging. The passive cold chain packaging of bulk agricultural products is still far away.

Smart packaging helps food safety

Representatives of Metz Media Group cited a large amount of data to elaborate the relationship between smart packaging and food safety.

According to data from a research report, fraud costs currently account for more than 2% of global economic output, or about $1.8 trillion a year for fraud. Even more shocking is that counterfeiting is expanding at a rate of 15% per year. Among them, consumer goods accounted for more than 46% of the counterfeit trade, which includes food and beverages, cosmetics and other items. In order to safeguard brand equity, it will be crucial to implement anti-counterfeiting and traceability measures on the packaging.

With the advent of the concept of Industry 4.0, food packaging has gradually become more advanced, and smart packaging has begun to enter people's minds. Where is smart packaging intelligence? The first manifestation of intelligence is the issue of food safety. Intelligent packaging can detect the quality of food, or it can effectively prevent counterfeiting, protect the rights and interests of consumers as much as possible, and achieve product traceability.

The Allied Market Report released the forecast report of the food and beverage anti-counterfeit packaging market in 2020. It is expected that by 2020, hologram anti-counterfeiting technology will continue to maintain its leading position in terms of anti-counterfeit packaging technology, but RFID (RFID as Radio Frequency Identification) The abbreviation of Radio Frequency Identification; that is radio frequency identification technology (commonly known as electronic tag) technology and bar code, especially the two-dimensional code anti-counterfeit will grow rapidly. At present, holograms account for about 2/3 of the entire anti-counterfeiting market and will continue to dominate in the future. In the future, the application of RFID technology will grow at an annual rate of 20.4%. Anti-counterfeiting of barcodes helps maintain a complete supply chain and has great potential for anti-counterfeit food traceability.