| In recent years, with sustainable development of China's economy and increasing improvement of the living standard, more and more attentions are focused on environment, and the concept of green products and green packaging enters thousands of households. According to the statistics in recent years, market share of green products in domestic and oversea markets is increasing year by year, particularly in developed countries where people pay more attention to life and health and consumers have more preference and demand for green products. Opinion polls show that 80% of Germans consider environmental protection as an important factor when they shop,77% of Americans are affected by enterprises' environmental protection image, and 66% of British are willing to pay high price for green products(?). We can say that, in the 21st century, with the development of economic globalization, green products has emerged into every link of every walk of economic life and people's requirements for protecting environment and improving quality of life are becoming higher; however, green product equipped with green packaging that adapts to it is truly a complete green product.Packing industry is a comprehensive and crosswise industry, which develops rapidly in China and plays an important role in domestic and international trade. However, with the development of packing industry, more and more packaging waste was produced, which has definitely caused serious impact on environment, and then the impact would be expanded to international trade. In addition, with the development of industrial modernization, overexploitation of resources and environmental degradation all over the world, all countries and regions have successively developed a series of environmental treaties and agreements in order to protect land resources, environmental quality and native economic interest.For a long time, agricultural export has played an important role in driving rural labors'employment, increasing farmers'income, optimizing agriculture's industrial structure, improving international competitiveness of China's agricultural exports, and promoting the development of domestic relevant industry. Since China's accession to the WTO, agricultural export has achieved great success through continuous efforts over the past few years. According to the customs'statistics, scale of agricultural export is expanding constantly and the total volume of trade raises from $18.02billion in 2002 to $48.88billion in 2010, which increases 1.7 times. Now China has become the fifth-largest agricultural trading nation in the world. However as a big country of import and export, agriculture is facing impacts of foreign agricultural products and "green barriers" of developed countries. Recently, WTO members that implement "green barriers" to agricultural products have already extended from developed countries (such as the EU, the US, Japan, etc.) to part of developing countries (such as South Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia).According to statistics from United States, about billions of dollars of agricultural exports are hampered for "green barriers", because China doesn't produce and pack agricultural products with green concept. According to statistics, "green agricultural products" will dominate the world's produce market in the next 10 years and "green packaging", which is well designed and conform to standards will become the effective passport to enter international market. Compared with other industrial products, agricultural products are mostly food, so environmental requirements are also stricter in international markets. Therefore, to agricultural products, green barriers actually become "barriers". But according to the current situation of China, agriculture just is the most difficult one to realize environmental protection because of its low level of industrialization. Therefore, China's agriculture is facing a serious challenge, in order to break through green barriers and compete with other countries' agricultural products we should take active measures to produce and pack agricultural products with green idea. Preface simply introduces research background and significance of green packaging.The first chapter briefly summarizes the basic knowledge about green packaging, including connotation, evaluation criterion, types and legal characteristics. Firstly, it points out source of the word "green packaging", introduces what "General Rules of Green Packaging" define green packaging and illustrates three basic factors of green packaging according to "benefit for the sustainable development of human beings". Secondly, explains 3R1D and LCA (Life Cycle Assessment)—internationally recognized principles to estimate relationship between packaging and environment. Then, it introduces international classifications of green packaging. At last, presents some special characteristics distinguishing green packaging from traditional packaging.Chapter two introduces ISO 14000-international "green passport" and some main developed.countries'laws and regulations on green packaging and their successful experiences. For instance, "American Waste Disposal Pre-charge Law", which points out that consumers should pay for packaging waste disposal and manufacturers can apply for exempting tax if they achieve a certain recycling level, "Law on Food Hygiene" and JAS, and "Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste" of EU. Their successful experiences are very valuable references for us.Chapter three presents status quo of China's agricultural exports'green packaging. Firstly, it introduces current situation of China's agricultural exports, and shows situation changes after China entering the WTO by introducing changes of import and export, composition of export commodities, trade partners and trade management system. Secondly, presents status quo of packaging of agricultural exports, such as vegetables, fruits and aquatic products. Then based on the connotation of green packaging conclude that there is still a big gap between these packaging (paper packing, wooden packaging and plastic packaging) and green packaging. The second part of this chapter mainly presents laws and regulations on packaging waste management and quality and safety of agricultural products in China.Chapter four analyzes influences and reasons of green packaging. Firstly, it briefly explains necessity for developing agricultural products green packaging from both internal and external aspects. On external cause side, at present, rising tide of environmental protection, rapid development of recycling economy, stronger sense of environmental protection and more green barriers, all of these request us to pay more attention to effects of green packaging and take appropriate countermeasures. Besides, the requirements of developed countries for agricultural exports are increasing and technical inspection and health quarantine requirements for its packaging is becoming higher too. On internal cause side, China pays more attention to environmental protection. And by developing green packaging of agricultural products we can improve competitiveness of agricultural exports, realize packaging value and lower warehouse charges and transportation cost.Then it explains effects of green packaging on agricultural exports through inspection and quarantine of packaging and packing label. Up to now, packaging material that affects China's agricultural exports mainly is wooden packaging, which needs to go through heat treatment, fumigation treatment and antiseptic treatment. At present, US, Germany, Japan, Canada, Norway, Sweden, France, Finland, Australia and other developed countries have already established environmental mark system, which tends to be harmony and mutual recognition. It is like an invisible barrier that makes it difficult for us to enter developed countries'markets, and even under huge impact.At last, it analyzes why green packaging affects China's agricultural exports. First, producers of agricultural products have vague notion of green packaging, they mistakenly consider all packaging in biodegradable material as green packaging while don't consider pollution or waste caused during production process or its recycling. Second is quite poor deep processing capacity. Finished food only accounts for 2%-30% of total processed agricultural products, which in developed countries is 15%-70%. About 60% of food consumed in China is still mainly unprocessed raw materials while in developed countries it is only 10%. Third is backward packaging technology of agricultural products. At present, China hasn't invested sufficiently in packaging design and technology while still only emphasizes manufacturing and cultivation technology. Enterprises don't pay enough attention to agricultural products packaging, they can't fully recognize the big social and economic benefits brought by agricultural products packaging.Chapter five based on LCA, points out countermeasures for existing problems in three aspects:choosing materials, producing wrappage and waste disposal. First is to green packaging materials, which can be achieved by carrying out green design and developing green packaging materials. Second is to green method of producing wrappage. However, in order to do that the first thing is to develop recycling economy, which is a new mode of economic development with high rate of ecological efficiency. It implements "reduction, recycle and harmless" management control to the flow pattern of social production and reproduction resources. Packaging system under the mode of recycling economy is actually just satisfied with the idea of implementing green packaging in the whole process, so we must develop recycling economy in order to develop green packaging. Then apply "concurrent engineering" in packaging design and promote standardization of agricultural products packaging. Thirdly, strengthen recycle and reuse of packaging waste. One is to force people to recycle packaging waste by laws. For example, request manufacturers and retailers to responsible for the whole life of products. They should recycle their products'waste and bear the full cost. Packaging wastes of industrial enterprises and circulation enterprises are forbidden entering the disposal system of municipal refuse and punish these enterprises failed to meet them. The other is to promote recycling of packaging waste by economic measures. According to "polluter pays principle" and "pollution control benefit", make "polluter" pay great price for environment, which can force them to implement cleaner production; make "controller" obtain considerable economic benefit to encourage the whole society to invest in environmental protection industry. Such as imposing environmental expenditures, packaging tax and security deposit. |
PDF Full Text Request