Asian Packaging & Environmental Laws – A Compliance Guide
Size: A4
Extent: 380pp
Format: Pdf
Tables/Charts: 40
Photographs: 50
Price: US$3,500
The Asian region is in the midst of a green packaging revolution as governments begin implementing tough environmental packaging laws that regulate the way packaging is produced, used and recovered.
According to a new report from EP Resources Pte Ltd (publisher of PackWebasia.com), Asian countries have introduced a raft of new legislation, tweaks to existing laws, administrative policy changes.
The report Asian Packaging & Environmental Laws – A Compliance Guide analyses the key laws, standards and packaging codes which currently regulate the industry in China, Japan and South Korea, provide commentary and place them in the cultural context that will see a common harmonised set of regulations implemented across the region.
The report includes the text of the major packaging legislation that are stricter than those in Europe - assesses the impact on the packaging industry, both in Asia and world-wide is already being felt.
Compliance with national laws will be mandatory and will restrict what packaging and materials will be permitted to be used produced in Asia. That which is produced outside Asia and exported to Asian countries will also have to be in compliance or be refused entry.
The consequences of non-compliance could force a complete restructuring of the way packaging is produced, recovered and recycled outside Asia.
| About this Report |
| This report is the result of more than three years in-country research in China, Japan and South East Asia. It has been compiled exclusively from primary sources; original documents, government and administration memos and the legislation. In the course of the research, the author conducted interviews with the leading players in Asia’s environmental packaging legislation - government officials and industry leaders of packaging manufacturers, brand owners and suppliers (both local and foreign) to achieve the perspectives of the Regulators and the impact on Industry. It is an essential work that goes behind the letter of the laws to understand their motivation, place them in the wider cultural context and explain their significance not just to the Asian packaging supply chain but the industry world-wide. INCLUDES THE FULL TEXT OF 27 ASIAN ENVIRONMENTAL PACKAGING LAWS |
China’s Green Packaging Laws
Based on a Beijing directive: ‘The Method for Administration for the Recycling of Packaging Materials’ – a sustainable packaging master-plan - the administration has introduced more than 16 new Laws and amendments since January 2008 that regulate package materials, production and packaging waste disposal.
These range from the law restricting the production of plastic retail shopping bags, new food-contact laws that prohibit colorants and plastic additives acceptable elsewhere in the world, to a draft law defining and restricting ‘Excessive Packaging.’
In addition, a set of new packaging standards has become de-facto laws as legislation requires production to be in compliance with these standards.
To back up these environmental laws, the Chinese government has also passed legislation that holds companies’ board of directors and senior management personally, and even criminally, liable for breach of environmental regulations – regardless of whether the companies are based in China or overseas.
That’s just the tip of China’s environmental packaging iceberg: the government is in the process of imposing Extended Producer Responsibility and mandatory eco-labelling. While the Clean Energy Law, passed in 2008, has not yet been applied to the packaging production line, equipment considered to be non-compliant is regularly refused import licences.
| Click Image to View Gallery | |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
“Though they may not be immediately obvious, the implications for the global packaging sector are wide-ranging,” says the report’s author, Stuart Hoggard.
Waste Import Ban
One of more than 30 examples cited in the report highlights the implications:
“Since 2001, China had been the largest single market for the world’s waste paper and plastic. In 2007 it imported waste plastic worth more than US$2.1 billion, and recovered paper valued at US$6.8 billion.
“Suddenly in May 2008, overnight and without warning, those markets were gone, when China’s Customs Quarantine Department imposed a ban on the import of household waste paper and plastic with the announcement ‘China will no longer buy foreign garbage!’
“As a result many European countries risked default under the EU Packaging Waste Directive!”
However catastrophic for the global waste material markets, China’s continuing ban on waste imports is just a micro implementation of a macro strategy. The collapse of the West’s waste trading markets was not the main intent; China really couldn’t care less! The strategy was purely domestic: to clean up its own internal packaging waste stream.
The ban choked off the import of mixed-waste and hard-to-recycle material and created an internal China-wide demand for recovered packaging material.
Also targeted for similar treatment are: PVC, thermoset plastic, coloured/tinted PET beverage bottles, under the Chinese sustainable packaging master-plan which calls for all packaging to be either “Recyclable, Reusable, Compostable or Energy recoverable”
Where did these ideas originate?
Japan introduced a suite of recycling legislation as far back as 1995 aimed at achieving a Zero Waste policy. This has become the model that all Asian countries are adopting and adapting to their own national circumstances. To understand the future of China’s packaging legislation requires analysis of Japan’s achievements.
Japan’s environmental legislation covers everything from food recycling (collection and composting from food outlets), buildings (demolition and material recovery), computers and electronics (recovery of precious metals) vehicles (centrally collected, stripped down - all metal, glass, plastic go to separate waste streams), and of course packaging.
All packaging is taxed at source, with a recycling levy (or tax) imposed on all materials used on an ex-works per kilo basis which can add about US$27,000 to an shipment of 2.5 million HDPE detergent bottles, approximately US$0.01¢per container.
To reduce tax liability, Japanese packaging producers have deployed massive R&D resources to light-weighting across all materials. Since 2005, the average weight of a 2L PET bottle has been reduced by 26%.
The typical weight of steel cans have dropped by 63%, while consumer demand continues to drive volumes. Effectively, as a direct result of the recycling tax, can makers are getting more 63% more cans from the same amount of material. With an 81% recovery and recycling rate, Japan’s packaging industry has cut its steel imports to zero.
Municipal laws require households and businesses to selectively sort waste into as many as 12 separate streams (paper, glass, steel, aluminium, PET, food, clothing, garden refuse etc).
PET bottles, for example, must have labels caps and closure rims removed and separately disposed of, bottles must then be rinsed and compacted before disposal, this meant that bottle manufacturers and brand owners were forced to develop easy to separate, crushable PET containers or risk consumer frustration as they attempt to peal off labels before disposal.
All trash is collected kerbside and shipped to dedicated recycling or composting centres.
Non-recyclable materials, such as flexible plastic laminates head for incinerators – electricity power generators, where flu-gasses are sequestered, drawn off and re-cracked. With near zero emissions these 3rd Generation incinerators leave just slag as a furnace end produce – even this is sent, not to landfills, but to use as base materials for road construction.
This system, known as a ‘Sound Material Cycle’, has its own law that intends to replace raw material imports with recovered recycled product, reduce dependence on foreign energy, while at the same time promote investment in Japan’s recycling and clean energy technology development – it has been in place for 10 years.
China passed a similar law in early 2009: The Circular Economy Law. While the text differs slightly, the context and objectives remain the same - to reshape the entire economic system by the more efficient use of technology, raw materials, energy and natural resources.
Asian Environmental Packaging Standards – a new ISO?
At the Asian Packaging Federation AGM meeting in Hangzhou in November 2008, the packaging associations and institutes of 14 Asian countries adopted the Guidelines for Asian Environmental Packaging Standards.
Representatives from China, Japan, South Korea, Philippines, VietNam, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, signed up to these new packaging standards which are based on Japanese JIS standards.
The motivation is clear; With these standards already being implemented by two of the largest global economies, China and Japan, Asia’s packaging exporters realise that they must be in compliance with a common set of production standards in order for their industries to survive.
The report Asian Packaging & Environmental Laws – A Compliance Guide deals in depth with the Asian Environmental Packaging Standards, the framework that lays the groundwork on a new set of ISO standards currently under discussion by the International Standards Committee (Packaging), these are expected to be completed by 2013.
Asian Packaging & Environmental Laws – A Compliance Guide
The Report
| Size: A4 |
Extent: 380pp | Format: Pdf |
| Tables/Charts 40 | Photographs 35 | Price US$3,500 |
What Is It?
This 380 page report analyses the impact on the packaging industry of 27 of the key Packaging Environmental Laws from China and Japan, how they were drafted, how they are implemented and how they will affect Brand Owners and Packaging Manufacturers world wide.
An essential tool for Legal Compliance, this report includes translations of the full text or each of these 27 laws, ordinances and mandatory standards.
It is the result of more than three years in-country research in China, Japan and South East Asia, and has been compiled exclusively from primary sources; original documents, government and administration memos and the core legislation.
In the course of the research, the author conducted interviews with the leading players in Asia’s environmental packaging legislation - government officials and industry leaders of packaging manufacturers, brand owners and suppliers (both local and foreign) to achieve the perspectives of the Regulators and the impact on Industry.
It is an essential work that goes behind the letter of the laws to understand their motivation, place them in the wider cultural context and explain their significance not just to the Asian packaging supply chain but the industry world-wide.
The report is illustrated with 30 photographs and more than explanatory 40 tables, charts and diagrams as aids to understanding the legal process and implementation of this legislation.
What Legislation is included?
Asian Packaging & Environmental Laws – A Compliance Guide includes the full text of the following legislation, ordinances and standards in current force, these have been translated into English by the publisher and are accompanied by explanatory annotations by the author.
Occupying more than 100 pages of the report, this is an indispensable reference for every company’s Compliance Library, whether it buys or produces packaging IN Asia or FOR Asia.
Who needs this Report
Every executive in companies that either manufacture in Asia, or export to Asia.
It is essential for:-
• Compliance - read the original regulations for yourselves
• Sustainability - understand the process and implications
• Business Development - plan your strategies from a position of knowledge
• Legal - a legal reference library of the actual Asian Environmental Packaging Legislation - in English translation
About the Author
This report was written and compiled by Singapore based publisher of PackWebasia.com, Stuart Hoggard following more than three years’ research in Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo during which he interviewed many of the key officials driving the legislation in each of these capitals.
A 15 year veteran of the packaging industry in Asia, he has written extensively on the dynamics of the Asian packaging industry and sustainability issues.
He has addressed the topic of Sustainability Legislation at the Sustainable Packaging Coalition Spring ‘08 meeting in San Francisco, Japan’s International Packaging Symposium in Tokyo, The Thai Ministry of Industry’s Environmental Conference in Bangkok 2008, and the Indonesian Packaging Federation meeting in Jakarta 2009.
In researching this report, he was granted access to government memos and cabinet meeting minutes, and was a participant at the Asian Packaging Federation executive meetings in Singapore, Seoul and Tokyo for the drafting of the Guidelines for Asian Environmentally Conscious Packaging Standards.
He consults regularly on the Packaging industry in Asia.
This Report can be ordered online by credit card via PayPal. {simplecaddy code=Asia-laws-101}
If you do not wish to make payment by credit card payment can be made by bank transfer. To receive an invoice please: - click the following link - select The Publisher from the drop-down menu - state the title you wish to order - please give your Name, Company, Billing Address & e-mail - Contact Us Here
