Application of Bamboo as Green Packaging Material

      With the enhancement of environmental awareness of the whole society, “green packaging” has attracted more and more attention. From a technical point of view, green packaging refers to an environment-friendly packaging developed with natural plants and related minerals as raw materials, which is harmless to the ecological environment, human health, conducive to recycling, easy degradation and sustainable development. The European Act defines three directions for packaging and environmental protection:

Application of Bamboo as Green Packaging Material

——Reduce materials from the upstream of production. The less packaging materials, the lighter the volume, the better;

——For secondary use, such as bottles, first of all, they should be light and can be used many times;

——It should be able to add value, form new packaging through waste recycling or burn waste, and the heat generated is used for heating, heating, etc. This paper discusses bamboo packaging.

1. It is imperative to replace wood with bamboo

      At present, wood has become a common main natural packaging material. However, in China, the limitations and deficiencies of wood packaging are becoming increasingly apparent with the continuous expansion of the packaging industry.Application of Bamboo as Green Packaging Material

      First of all, China’s forest area accounts for only 3.9% of the world’s total, the forest stock is less than 3% of the world’s total stock, and the forest coverage rate is 13.92%. The per capita forest area and per capita stock are lower than the world average level, ranking 120th and 121st in the world respectively, and the forest coverage rate ranks 142th in the world.Application of Bamboo as Green Packaging Material

      China imports a large amount of wood and its products every year to meet the needs of the market. However, it is not a long-term strategy to solve the shortage of China’s total demand by importing forest products. First, the national economic strength is not strong, so it is difficult to spend tens of billions of foreign exchange to import forest products every year; Second, the international timber market is unpredictable. Relying on imports will put China in an extremely passive situation.Application of Bamboo as Green Packaging Material

Secondly, because some tree species are vulnerable to diseases and pests, as packaging materials, they are limited by processing conditions and processes, and the cost is too high in import and export trade. In September 1998, the U.S. government issued a temporary animal and plant quarantine decree, which implemented new inspection and quarantine regulations on wood packaging and bedding materials of China’s goods exported to the United States.Application of Bamboo as Green Packaging Material

      It is stipulated that the wooden packaging of China’s goods exported to the United States must be accompanied by a certificate issued by China’s official quarantine organ that the wooden packaging has undergone heat treatment, fumigation treatment or anti-corrosion treatment before entering the United States, otherwise it is prohibited to import. Application of Bamboo as Green Packaging Material

     Later, countries and regions such as Canada, Japan, Australia, Britain and the European Union followed suit, which virtually increased the high cost of fumigation treatment or chemical insecticidal treatment for China’s export enterprises.Application of Bamboo as Green Packaging Material

      Thirdly, a large number of wood cutting undoubtedly has an adverse impact on the environment. At the same time, afforestation and its forest forming speed are far from meeting the market demand for wood. Here may be an example: Application of Bamboo as Green Packaging Material

     according to statistics, the national average production of shirts is 1.2 billion every year, and the amount of paper used in its packaging box is 240000 tons, which is equivalent to cutting down 1.68 million thick trees. If we calculate the amount of paper used for packaging all goods and the trees to be cut down, it is undoubtedly an amazing figure.Application of Bamboo as Green Packaging Material

     Therefore, it is necessary to develop and utilize other green packaging materials to replace wood packaging materials as soon as possible. Bamboo is undoubtedly the first choice.Application of Bamboo as Green Packaging Material

2. Application of bamboo in packaging field

     China is a large country of bamboo, with 35 genera and nearly 400 species of bamboo plants, and has a long history of cultivation and utilization. Whether it is the quantity of bamboo resources, bamboo forest area and accumulation, or the output and processing level of bamboo forest products.Application of Bamboo as Green Packaging Material

      China ranks first in the world in terms of bamboo production, and has the reputation of “world bamboo kingdom”. In comparison, bamboo has higher timber yield than trees, shorter timber cycle, easy molding, wide application, and the price is much lower than wood.Application of Bamboo as Green Packaging Material

      The use of bamboo as packaging material has existed since ancient times, especially in rural areas. With the enhancement of environmental protection awareness, bamboo packaging will gradually replace wood packaging in import and export trade between urban and rural areas and play a more and more important role.Application of Bamboo as Green Packaging Material

Bamboo is used for food and medicine packaging

      Bamboo has its own antibacterial property, which makes bamboo grow without moth and decay, and without the use of any pesticides. Using bamboo materials to produce tableware or food packaging containers not only has no worries about the supply of raw materials, but also has no pollution in the process of production and use, which is conducive to environmental protection. Application of Bamboo as Green Packaging Material

      At the same time, tableware or food packaging containers made of bamboo materials also retain the unique natural fragrance, simple tone and hardness and softness of bamboo.Application of Bamboo as Green Packaging Material

      Application methods mainly include original ecological bamboo tube (wine, tea, etc.), bamboo weaving utensils (fruit plate, fruit box, medicine box), etc.Application of Bamboo as Green Packaging Material

Bamboo is used for packaging daily necessities

      Bamboo is light and easy to shape, so that it can complete the packaging mission in all aspects of daily life. It can not only be reused, but also in packaging design, according to the different characteristics of packaging objects, decorative techniques such as engraving, branding, painting and weaving can be applied to improve the cultural taste of packaging materials, and make the packaging have the functions of protection, aesthetics and collection.Application of Bamboo as Green Packaging Material

     The main application methods are bamboo weaving (pieces, pieces and silk), such as various boxes, cages, vegetable baskets, canopy mats for storage and various packaging gift boxes.Application of Bamboo as Green Packaging Material

Bamboo is used for transportation and packaging

      As early as the late 1970s, Sichuan Province of China once “replaced wood with bamboo” to pack and transport machines weighing several tons.Application of Bamboo as Green Packaging Material

      The rise and development of bamboo plywood has opened up a new way with great vitality for the use of bamboo. It has the characteristics of wear resistance, corrosion resistance, insect resistance, high strength and good toughness, and its performance is much better than other wood-based panels. Bamboo is light in weight but extremely hard in texture.Application of Bamboo as Green Packaging Material

       According to the measurement, the shrinkage of bamboo is very small, but the elasticity and toughness are very high. The tensile strength along the grain reaches 170Mpa and the compressive strength along the grain reaches 80MPa. In particular, the tensile strength along the grain of corundum reaches 280mpa, almost half of that of ordinary steel.Application of Bamboo as Green Packaging Material

       However, if the tensile strength is calculated by unit mass, the tensile strength of bamboo is 2.5 times that of steel. It is not difficult to see that bamboo plywood can be used to replace wood as transportation packaging materials.Application of Bamboo as Green Packaging Material