Sustainability has become a hot topic in current society. It also has an important influence on the packaging industry. Nowadays, green packaging has been widely used in various industries. People not only focus on the profits the packaging brings them, but also care about the sustainable development of balancing the economy and environment. No matter from which aspect of packaging, commercial or environmental protection, sustainable packaging will be a good choice.

What is sustainable packaging? This concept has evolved from ecologically sustainable development. Sustainable packaging refers that it needs to obey the rules of the sustainability of energy and substance during the packaging process, which needs to ensure the raw material is renewable, the energy consumption of production is low, low environmental pollution and recyclable.

In many developed European countries, more and more people have realized the serious problem that packaging brings to the environment, and have taken many positive measures. For example, Germany introduced Packaging Regulations; Belgium promulgated National Ecology Law; EN requires the packaging recycling rate to reach 85%, etc. According to statistics, during the use of a product, the environmental cost has a portion of 80% depending on the packaging. To solve the environmental problem caused by packaging, sustainable packaging has become a good choice.

In principle, sustainable packaging needs to meet the profits of the environment, function and economy at the same time. Besides considering packaging structure, market effect, shelf effect, and consumer acceptance, we also need to forecast the environmental influence during the production and use of eco-friendly packaging, as well as the recycling problem of waste packaging.

First, the packaging materials of sustainable packaging must be safe for humans, animals and the environment. This requirement is not only while using the packaging, but also embodies the whole circular chain of packaging production, use, and recycling.

In addition, sustainable packaging must be low energy consumption. During the production process, we need to reduce the use of packaging materials, energy consumption, and rationally use the transportation and storage space, shorten the degradation time of waste packaging materials.

What's more, sustainable packaging also should coincide with circular development. In the fierce market competition, rationally using renewable materials (renewable paper, renewable pulping, etc.) can reduce power consumption and costs and realize the circular development of packaging. With the development of technology,

Actually, we can see sustainable packaging everywhere. For example, in 2006, Americans used corn as the raw material to produce drink bottles, socks, etc. These kinds of products are made from plant fiber materials, which are easily recycled and biodegraded.

To a certain extent, the packaging produced in pursuit of maximizing commercial interests has had a great impact on human life. Today, when the whole society advocates "resource-saving" and "environmentally friendly", sustainable packaging, as a method to realize the circular development of packaging, has unlimited development possibilities in the field of packaging.