The “beautiful rubbish†(a beautiful waste from overpackaging) that was used as a new Chinese word by the Ministry of Education in 2006 may not be long before it will grow old. Recently, the National Standards Committee issued a draft of the national standard “Restriction of excessive packaging requirements for food and cosmeticsâ€. It is intended to specify specific requirements for food and cosmetics packaging, limit requirements, and calculation methods for limit indicators. For example, it is proposed that The regulations stipulate that the packaging layers for the four categories of beverages, wine, cakes, tea, and cosmetics must not exceed 3 layers; on the “Package Voidage†indicator, the packaging voids for beverages and cakes must not exceed 55% of the volume of the goods. .
In particular, it is worth mentioning that "the total cost of all packaging except the initial packaging should not exceed 12% of the selling price of the goods" as a recommended clause and is also included in the standard. Compared to the 2005 “Deluxe Mooncakes†jointly sponsored by the 4 departments such as the National Development and Reform Commission, the “Moon cake packaging must not exceed 25% of the value of mooncakesâ€, and the “Excessive Commodity Limitation†issued jointly by AQSIQ and the National Standards Commission last year. In the “General Principles of Packagingâ€, the requirement that the total sum of packaging costs should not exceed 15% of the ex-factory price of goods should be stipulated in the draft, and the standard to be introduced this time is obviously more stringent.
The quantified and more stringent regulations will soon be introduced, which will undoubtedly become a tool to curb excessive packaging and control the pollution of “beautiful garbage.†This not only shows the government’s determination to oppose excessive packaging, but also provides a basis for future law enforcement operations. At the same time, it also reflects that the Chinese government is advancing on a regular, scientific, and legalized path in promoting the development of circular economy, improving the efficiency of resource utilization, protecting and improving the environment, and achieving sustainable development.
Even so, people still have a worry: Just like a person can't eat a fat one, the wind of over-packaging a product can not be blown up in a single day. Similarly, just like a person who loses weight is very difficult and often rebounds, the product packaging “lose weightâ€. Is there a similar problem?
This worry is not without reason. Excessive packaging is a far more complex issue than people's imagination. That is to say, from the psychology level, behind the over-packaging, there is a dual game of rationality and irrationality between producers and consumers. The key point of the game is that the value of the goods has changed due to excessive packaging, and in addition to the practical value, it has also been attached to the value of communication (easy), and thus has become another form --- gifts. The so-called communicative (easy) value refers to the gift's ability to embody the "mind" and "face" of the giver. It belongs to the category of "symbolic value", and the practical value is then transformed into the carrier of these functions. The best expression of communicative (easy) value is the gift potential of commodities, namely scarcity and ritual, and packaging is precisely a ritual for a certain candidate commodity to fulfill the function of gifts.
The essence of excessive packaging and gentrification of gift goods lies in concealing corruption behind the gift culture. The shrewd merchants cleverly used this corrupt market and forced other consumers into the "giving game" cycle. Here, the "rational" game of countless individuals leads to the result of the "irrationality" (waste) of the society as a whole. Therefore, it is imperative to curb excessive packaging from the source, achieve packaging “lose weightâ€, eradicate psychology in gift-giving games, and allow society to “slim down†the concept.
This requires the government to guide and standardize the behaviors of businesses and consumers through the use of legalization measures. At the same time, it must also focus on the hypocritical and intangible tendencies existing in the current social consumption habits to strengthen consumer health spending, green consumption, and the establishment of The propaganda and education of civilized gift culture and fashion urges businesses to establish a sound and long-lasting competition mechanism and form a good social and moral concept to eradicate the hidden corrupt market. Of course, the three governments, businesses, and consumers interact and interact with each other. Eradicating excessive packaging is also a long process. It cannot be done overnight and it needs to be gradual.