Over-Packaging Hazard and Its Prevention (II)

Third, the prevention of excessive packaging of goods

(1) Combining national conditions, learning from foreign experience, and controlling the over-packaging The development of foreign packaging industry is earlier than China. Drawing on the experience and methods of foreign countries, it is beneficial to the prevention and control of over-packaging of goods in China. At present, the foreign control methods for excessive packaging of goods mainly include the following three types. The first type is standard control. That is, a limit is set on the volume of the package, the gap between the package and the product, the number of packages, the ratio of the package cost to the value of the product, and the like. Such as South Korea, Japan, Canada and other countries.

The second category is economic control. That is, a non-paper package and a package that does not meet the recycling requirements are subject to a package tax, or through garbage metering to guide consumers to choose a simple package. Such as Belgium, the Netherlands and other countries.

The third category is to increase producer responsibility. It is stipulated that the producers of goods are responsible for the recovery of the packaging of goods. Usually, depositors can be used to entrust relevant commercial establishments to recycle packaging. In order to facilitate recycling, producers actively choose packages that use less material and are easy to recycle, such as Germany, France and other countries.

In view of the fact that China’s laws and regulations are not perfect and sound, and their spending power continues to increase and the market competition is becoming increasingly fierce, China should fully learn from the successful experience of foreign countries, and should be manned by the country, industry, and consumers in order to jointly manage the situation. It is necessary to strengthen the constraints of laws and regulations, but also to form the self-discipline of manufacturers, but also to create a simple consumer atmosphere of advocacy.

(b) The state uses macroeconomic controls. Control over packaging First, the state should improve and improve relevant laws and regulations and strengthen law enforcement supervision. In order to meet the needs of market economy development, in April 2005, the National People's Congress revised the "Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution Caused by Solid Waste". Since April 2005, excessive packaging of goods will be banned and people are legally encouraged to use easy-to-recycle packaging. The newly revised Solid Waste Pollution Prevention and Control Law clearly stipulates: “The State Council's administrative department for standardization shall organize and formulate relevant standards based on the state’s economic and technical conditions, the state of prevention and control of solid waste pollution and the technical requirements of products, and prevent excessive packaging from causing environmental pollution. The law also stipulates that enterprises that produce, sell, and import products and packaging that are legally listed in the compulsory recycling catalogue must be recycled according to the relevant state regulations. The law clearly states that the State encourages scientific research and production units to research and manufacture thin film covers and commodity packaging that are easy to recycle, easy to handle, or that can be degraded in the environment. The law also requires that units and individuals using agricultural film should take measures such as recycling to prevent or reduce pollution of the agricultural film to the environment. China should formulate the (packaging law) as soon as possible according to the ready experience of all countries in the world. Many countries have examples of commodity packaging management. For example, Australia stipulates that the packaging space for goods must not exceed 25% of the packaging volume. The cost must be less than 15% of the price of the product, and the Netherlands requires that 60% of the packaging material must be reused.

On the macro level, Germany, which first advocated the recycling of packaging materials, has a “recycling economy law”, which stipulates that waste is first avoided in production, and materials or energy must be fully utilized; the “green tax” system pioneered by Denmark has promoted the recycling of packaging materials. South Korea stipulates that excessive packaging is an illegal act. In order to implement restrictions on the ratio and the number of layers of the goods, the Korean government rewards the streamlining of commodity packaging and punishes excessive packaging of goods. Secondly, the state increased investment in environmental protection packaging science and technology through economic measures, provided preferential tax policies for advanced packaging environmental protection projects, and guided private capital and social capital to enter the green environmental protection industry. Third, in the aspect of building a conservation-minded society, vigorously promote the scientific concept of development and form a scientific concept of consumption that respects simplicity, resource conservation, and green consumption in the entire society.

(III) Enterprises Implement Green Commodity Packaging Strategy

Green commodity packaging refers to packaging that does not cause pollution to the ecological environment, does not cause harm to human health, can be recycled and recycled, and can promote sustainable development. In the economically developed European society, the concept of green commodity packaging consumption has long been in the hearts of people. Consumers can consciously consider consumption issues from the perspective of environmental protection and have a mature consumer mentality. For example, in Germany, whether it is wine or whisky, most of them are simply bottled, eliminating the need for packaging boxes. Most people use cloth bags and twig baskets when shopping, supermarket plastic bags are generally expensive to buy. The vast majority of German consumers believe that genuine goods and value for money are the most important criteria for the selection of goods. Their choice of goods is based on four criteria: First, less packaging, simple processing; Second, less pollution, beneficial ecology; Third, not serious exploitation of labor, does not infringe on the right to survival of local residents; Fourth, does not contain or contain harmful chemical ingredients. The mechanism by which companies promote green commodity packaging strategies lies in the fact that green packaged goods can be positioned in the ranks of high-end goods, satisfying consumers' dedication to health and nature. Green commodity packaging can affect the elasticity of demand for certain commodities, making commodities less flexible at high prices and elastic at low prices. Therefore, price reduction can significantly increase sales, and price increases will not lead to a significant reduction in demand. As shown in Figure 2, DD is the product demand curve that has not adopted the green commodity packaging marketing, D'D' is the product demand curve that adopts the green commodity packaging marketing, and D'D' indicates that after strengthening the green commodity packaging marketing, the demand curve is high Part of the flexibility is very small, and it is very flexible at low prices. The main reason for the change in the demand curve is that the green commodity packaging marketing brings consumers new product information, changes the consumer’s understanding of the product or corporate image, generates “perceived value”, or changes old concepts, familiarizes with the characteristics of the product, and then begins Try to buy, and gradually feel confident to repeat purchase after satisfaction.

(D) The packaging industry develops industry norms and strengthens industry self-regulation

At present, there is still a big gap between China's packaging industry and foreign advanced levels. A large number of packaging materials and mechanical equipment rely on imports, and there are not many products with independent intellectual property rights. The Chinese packaging industry cannot rely on the use of large quantities of packaging materials to increase the cost of packaging. It must rely on the development of packaging materials and the science of packaging machinery to enhance the capability of independent intellectual property innovation and enhance industrial competitiveness. Therefore, the packaging industry should formulate industry norms based on the scientific development concept, try to formulate commodity packaging standards, and strengthen the industry.

(E) Consumers change consumer attitudes and social climate, and consciously resist excessive packaging of goods

Part of the reason for over-packaging of goods lies in consumer's consumption concept and social atmosphere. If the social atmosphere cannot be changed, even if there is (packaging law), over-packaging of commodities may be difficult to eradicate. Therefore, the problem of excessive packaging of goods is resolved. We must rely on the concept of universal consumption and the fundamental transformation of the social atmosphere.Chinese consumers should strengthen their concept of green consumption, consciously resist excessive packaging of goods, strengthen their sense of self-protection, awareness of environmental protection, and awareness of social responsibility, so that over-packaging of goods will lose their soil of survival.

Source: "Modern Finance" Lv Qinghua School of Business Administration, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics