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Stop over-packaging

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-09-11 07:49

No one would be willing to pay one-third of the price for the packaging or wrapping of what he or she purchases. But over-packaging has become a disease that leads to a massive waste of resources and contributes to environmental pollution.

Behind this disease are some appalling figures.

The wasted packaging materials are estimated to be worth about 280 billion yuan annually. And such packages and wrappings thrown away by customers make up half of the volume of solid waste in cities. And its percentage has been increasing.

If the cost for treating the solid waste is included, the money that has been wasted on over-packaging should be much higher.

It is high time that regulations were adopted to stop enterprises from spending too much on unnecessary packaging and wrapping.

In spite of opposition from enterprises and some experts to some particular stipulations in the regulations to prevent over-packaging at Tuesday's hearing, the regulations under deliberation are expected to be adopted soon.

To produce paper packagings or wrappings, many more trees have to be cut down. But the packagings will then be thrown away by consumers. The same is true with plastic wrappings.

Over-packaging also infringes on the interest of consumers when they have to spend quite a high percentage on something that they will have to throw into the dustbin. The simple truth is that the more a producer spends on packagings or wrappings, the more expensive the products it sells will be.

Product packaging and wrapping used to be very simple 30 years ago. Moon cakes were wrapped just in papers with a piece of red paper on top as trademark. "Shabby" was the word many had used to criticize the way Chinese products were packaged. And shabby packaging was condemned for making Chinese products unattractive in the international market.

It is reasonable to pay enough attention to packaging or wrapping products in such a manner that they can be appealing to customers' eyes. But that does not definitely justify that packaging should even outshine what is inside.

In the Chinese proverb, maidu huanzhu, the buyer returns the pearl and just keeps the case because the latter is too fancy and luxurious. It not only ridicules the poor judgment of the buyer, but also criticizes the unnecessary efforts the seller has spent in making the case.

Another message from the proverb is that over-packaging helps cultivate an unhealthy consuming mentality - to buy fancy-looking stuff but not what they really need. This is also against the principle of frugality and sustainable development.

(China Daily 09/11/2008 page8)