Future Food: Paper Food Packaging or Plastic Food Packaging ?
At present, there are many kinds of food packaging on the market. In terms of environmental protection, there are recyclable and non-recyclable food packaging materials, such as paper packaging, plastic packaging, metal packaging and glass packaging. Nowadays, the market share of plastic packaging is very large, but its production only pays attention to the safety and hygiene of food, and seldom considers the environmental problems. The pollution caused by plastic packaging is also obvious to all. So, in the future, the dominant food packaging is paper packaging or plastic packaging?
In the modern packaging industry system, paper and paper containers play a very important role. In China, paper packaging materials account for about 40% of the total packaging materials. From the development trend, the amount of paper packaging will be increasing. Paper packaging materials dominate the packaging field because of a series of unique advantages, such as: good processing performance, good printing performance, certain mechanical properties, easy to compound processing, good health and safety, wide source of raw materials, easy to form mass production, variety, low cost, etc. Light weight, easy transportation, recyclable waste; and plastic as packaging material is an important symbol of the development of modern technology, rich sources of raw materials, low cost, excellent performance, has become the fastest growing in the world in recent 40 years, a huge amount of packaging materials. However, plastic packaging materials used in food packaging have obvious shortcomings, there are some health and safety problems and environmental pollution problems of packaging waste.
Some data show that the amount of plastic used in food packaging accounts for 1/4 of the total plastic output. It can be said that as soon as plastic used in food packaging appears, garbage will be generated. In supermarkets and shopping malls, many food packages are made of plastic. The plastic inflatable packaging of puffed food can be moisture-proof, oxidation-proof, fragrance-preserving, sunshine-blocking and extrusion-proof, but such a large package is a great waste of resources; and the packaging of instant noodles, plastic packaging is far more than paper bowls (or barrels) packaging, the sale price of bowls or barrels of instant noodles on the market is generally high. The sales price of instant noodles in bags of the same quality is 1/3, but because this kind of packaging is convenient to eat, especially when traveling, it can be eaten directly by brewing hot water after opening the lid, without bringing other containers, so it is very popular with consumers.
With the improvement of environmental protection requirements, it is necessary for consumers to eliminate backward packaging. The improvement of plastic materials is also a top priority. Food on the market can be packaged with paper as much as possible to reduce the waste of plastic and environmental pollution, which is also for the benefit of future generations.
