Study on the Connotation of Circular Economy and Evaluation Index System

Under the guidance of the scientific concept of development, circular economy has been identified as China’s economic development model. This is China’s face of the world’s three major crises: “population, resources, and the environment” and the growing depletion of domestic resources, increasing pollution, and increasingly ecological damage. The major strategic decision made in economic development is a historical symbol of China’s shift from focusing solely on GDP and light environment to the economic environment, focusing on the protection and conservation of resources, and taking the road of sustainable economic development. In the 1990s, the packaging industry had put forward the call to “develop green packaging vigorously”. Green packaging and recycling economy have the same essence. They are guided by ecology and life cycle assessment theory to conserve resources in economic development and To protect the environment as a goal, there are many similarities in the guiding ideology, implementation connotation, and completion effect. This article combines the reality of the packaging industry, discusses the connotation, basic principles of circular economy and the evaluation index system of circular economy.

First, the basic concept

1. Connotation

Circular economy is the use of ecological laws to guide human society economic activities, with the efficient use of resources and recycling as the core, "reduction, reuse, recycling" as the basic principle, with low consumption, low emissions, high The essence of social production and reproduction in which efficiency is the basic feature is to realize the greatest economic and social development benefit with the least possible resource consumption and the lowest possible environmental cost.
Comprehensive utilization of circular economy financing sources, ecological design, clean production, material recycling and sustainable consumption are all in one, and the economic activities are transformed from the traditional “resource-product-recycling” “open-loop” model to “resource-one”. The “closed-loop” circulation model of product-recycling (cyclic economy is the abbreviation of material closed-loop mobile economy), thus transforming the traditional resource-consumption economy into a sustainable economic growth mode.

2. Basic principles The most important operating principle for the implementation of circular economy is the “3R” principle, ie, reduction (R), reuse (R), recycling (R). The packaging industry must successfully implement circular economy. Each principle is It is essential.

The importance of the three principles of “reduction, reuse, and recycling” emphasized by circular economy is not the same, and the order of the three cannot be changed. Reduction is the most important of the three principles. The first is to reduce the quantity of substances that enter the production and consumption process. Reuse and recycling must be based on the full source reduction of the economic process.

Second, the evaluation index system

The assessment of the effectiveness of the implementation of circular economy must establish an evaluation index system. Under the guidance of the evaluation index system, industrial production will implement circular economy more effectively.

1. The basis and scope of the evaluation index system

The way to implement circular economy is the same as clean production. There are mainly two aspects of production process and product. Both of these aspects should meet the connotation requirements of the circular economy. The intension of the intension can be expressed as:

(1) Production process. 1 Minimize the harmful performance of energy and resources; 2 Minimize the input of energy and resources; 3 Minimize the discharge of waste; 4 Maximize the efficiency of energy and resources use; 5 Minimize environmental changes.
(2) Product aspects. 1 Non-toxic and harmless; 2 Reduction; 3 Recyclable and recyclable; 4 Easy to handle.
Inspecting the scope of the above requirements is theoretically the whole process of the product life cycle. However, for packaging companies, the raw materials are purchased from outside the factory, so the packaging company implements a circular economy, and the whole process of its product life cycle can only inspect the production process. , use process and post-disposal three stages.

2. Evaluation index system in the production process

The above indexing requirements were expanded to the following indicators:

(1) Minimize harmful energy and resources 1 Whether energy is clean energy. Non-pollution of the environment belongs to clean energy, including petroleum light products, natural gas, renewable resources (water, wind, solar energy, geothermal energy, ocean tide energy, etc.) and clean coal purification technologies, etc.; 2 Reduction rate of energy pollution to the environment 3 Whether the raw materials for packaging are renewable resources, non-renewable resources should be used as little as possible; 4 the reduction rate of toxic raw materials resources containing toxicity; 5 the reduction rate of HCFCs used in packaging production.

(2) Minimization of energy and resource input 1 Reduction of the consumption of packaging materials and materials; 2 Reduction of the consumption of packaging auxiliary materials; 3 Reduction of the consumption of packaging energy; 4 Reduction of consumption of water resources in packaging production.

(3) The discharge of waste is minimized, and the discharge of toxic waste must be restricted in particular. 1 Reduction rate of waste gas discharged during packaging production process; 2 Reduction rate of waste liquid discharged during packaging production process; 3 Reduction rate of waste discharged during packaging production process; 4 Poisonous chemical substances discharged during packaging production process, such as dioxins The reduction rate of heavy metal residues, nitrogen oxides, and organic solvent volatiles; 5 the reduction rate of dust emitted from packaging during the production process that affects human lung health; 6 the reduction rate of the weight or volume of packaging; 7 packaging waste at The rate of reduction of secondary pollution discharged during recycling and reuse.

(4) Maximizing energy and resource use efficiency 1Reducing rate of scrap and scrap in packaging raw materials; 2Recycling and utilization rate of scrap and scrap in packaging raw materials; 3Packaging resources in production processes, processing equipment and processes The reduction rate of materials before the loss in the process; 4 The increase rate of recycling utilization of packaging resources; The increase rate of production of 5 units of energy; 6 The rate of increase in the recycling of packaging water resources.

(5) Minimize environmental changes

The impact of packaging production on the environment may have many aspects, but people are mainly concerned with the following aspects: (1) Reduction in greenhouse effect caused by packaging production and waste disposal; (2) Decrease in ozone layer destruction caused by packaging production and waste treatment (3) Reduction rate of acid rain effect caused by packaging production and waste disposal; 4 Reduction rate of water pollution pollution caused by packaging production and waste treatment.

3. Product evaluation index system

In the same way, the indexing requirements have also been expanded to the following indicators:

(1) Non-toxic and harmless 1 Whether the reduction rate of the toxic components contained in the packaged products is within the prescribed range; 2 The reduction rate of harmful components that may migrate to the content items is contained in the packaging materials.

(2) Reduce the reduction rate of raw material consumption for a single packaging product; 2 Reduce the consumption of auxiliary materials for single packaging products; 3 Reduce the consumption rate of energy, public resources and chemical substances when cleaning and drying packaging waste.

(3) Recyclable and reusable 1 The increase rate of the number of recycling of packaging products used for recycling; 2 The increase rate of recycling of packaging products; 3 The increase rate of recycling and recycling of packaging products; 4 The improvement of the applicability of packaging waste cleaning, drying, and reuse Rate; 5 increase in fuel heat energy recovered from incineration of packaging waste.

(4) Easy to handle 1 The increase rate of self-degradation of packaging waste in a short period of time; 2 The increase in the reliability of classification and recovery of packaging waste.

4. Implement the evaluation index of the benefits of circular economy

After the evaluation of the production process and products, the benefit evaluation is also needed.

(1) Functional performance. Whether the product meets the original technical requirements or not, and the performance evaluation must be carried out under the premise of fully satisfying the functional performance requirements of the product;

(2) Resources and environmental benefits. After the implementation of circular economy, due to the reduction of pollutants, resources and energy consumption, social benefits and resource and environmental benefits

(3) Economic benefits. After the implementation of circular economy, whether the cost of production is reduced and the economic benefits. For example, if there are only resource and environmental benefits, but the production cost is increased, it is called marginal benefit only. The implementation of cleaner production and recycling economy should also be improved. The goal we pursue should be the existing resources, environmental benefits, and economic benefits. The full benefits.

Source: China Wine, Beverage Machinery Professional Network Author/Yu Qunli