Functional Advantages Of Flexible Packaging Film

Lightweight, sturdy and durable, and not easy to decompose are the advantages of plastic film rather than its disadvantages. Comprehensive functionality and quantifiability are irreplaceable advantages of composite flexible packaging film. We should maximize the advantages of plastic packaging film, play to its strengths and avoid its weaknesses, and use plastic reasonably and effectively. Not only do we need to understand the advantages of biodegradable plastics, but we also need to understand and continuously address their potential drawbacks. According to the product characteristics of the composite flexible packaging film industry, vigorously advocating the five development requirements of "reduction, resource utilization, harmlessness, low carbonization, and safety" for packaging film from design, production, consumption to disposal is the most effective way for our industry to achieve sustainable development.
1) Reduce quantity
Implement "reduction" of packaging materials and advocate for enterprises and consumers to "not use, use less, reuse, and recycle" plastic packaging films. Reducing the consumption of plastic products is the primary issue in solving the environmental pollution and resource waste caused by packaging waste in China.
2. Resource utilization
Plastic itself is a petroleum resource, and after being discarded, it should first be classified and recycled, and used as reasonably as possible. We use biodegradable plastics to produce products for situations where functional multi-layer films cannot be classified, recycled, and effectively utilized after disposal, because these films have almost no value for recycling. The purpose is to require the film to undergo significant chemical structural changes within a short period of time after disposal, resulting in the loss of certain properties, namely degradation.
Therefore, if we blindly pursue biodegradable plastics to replace traditional plastics, it not only requires a large amount of manpower, material resources, and financial resources, but also wastes valuable food and oil resources, causing a new round of resource waste and environmental pollution.
In the face of increasingly severe conflicts between resources and the environment, countries such as the European Union attach greater importance to the recycling and reuse of plastic products after use. According to the revised guiding laws of the European Commission, EU member states should increase the recycling rate of their packaging waste to 55% or above between 2008 and 2015, with a recycling rate of 60% for glass packaging, 50% for metal packaging, 22.5% for plastic packaging, and 15% for wooden packaging. The European Commission pointed out that in 2001, the reuse of packaging waste alone reduced the EU's carbon dioxide emissions by 0.6%. This indicates that increasing the recycling rate of packaging waste can not only reduce the energy consumption of packaging materials and save the cost of building incineration treatment plants, but also reduce the environmental pollution and carbon emissions caused by the production process of packaging materials. It is a very practical and effective measure to protect the environment. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the mandatory recycling of traditional plastics.
3) Harmless treatment
Plastic film should not cause harm to the environment after disposal, and we all know that recycling is the best way to achieve harmless plastic. Although many research institutions at home and abroad have shown that the safety testing of biodegradable plastic degradation products has no adverse effects on soil fertility and the content of various chemical elements in soil, these results are only preliminary conclusions and need further identification in the future to characterize the toxicity of degradation products and their impact on the environment, and ultimately confirm whether they are not harmful to the environment.
4) Low carbonization
The Chinese government delegation held a press conference at the Copenhagen Climate Conference, stating that China has committed to reducing its carbon intensity per unit of GDP by 40-45% by 2020. This not only marks progress in China's energy conservation and emission reduction efforts and in promoting international climate change negotiations, but also marks the official alignment of China's low-carbon economy with international standards. Therefore, the carbon emissions of plastic film will become an important indicator for measuring whether plastic film products are environmentally friendly in the future. Manufacturing companies will have to consider their energy consumption issues, and labeling their carbon consumption and emissions on products will become a new product label and a new coordinate for green products. Reducing the extraction of petroleum resources used in plastic manufacturing is driving the Chinese government towards low-carbon goals.
5) Security oriented
As people pay more and more attention to the safety of food and food packaging, the issue of "safety" of plastic packaging for food has also become prominent. Clear regulations have been made regarding the safety of packaging materials, containers, and other products used for food. Due to the requirement of significant changes in the chemical structure of biodegradable plastics in a short period of time, their safety will become an urgent issue to be addressed if they are used for food packaging.