The 21st century is also known as the "Environmental Protection Century". With the continuous popularity of environmental protection concepts in all walks of life, green development has become one of the current goals of manufacturing development, and food packaging companies are naturally no exception. Nowadays, plastics occupy half of the country in food packaging materials. Under the trend of green packaging, the food packaging industry is continuously increasing the research and development of degradable packaging materials.

As a packaging material, plastic is an important symbol of the development of modern packaging technology. Because of its rich raw material sources, low cost, and excellent performance, it has become one of the world's fastest-growing packaging materials in the past 40 years. It is a high-molecular polymer. The special structure of its macromolecules makes plastics have a series of special properties: chemical degradation, insolubility, strength and toughness.

There are as many as fifteen or six kinds of plastics used in food packaging in China, such as PE, PP, PS, PET, PA, PVDC, EVA, PVA, EVOH, PVC, ionomer resin, etc. It is undeniable that the excellent high oxygen resistance, high humidity resistance, radiation resistance, low temperature resistance, etc. of plastics have brought many benefits to the food industry. However, plastics are difficult to degrade naturally in the environment. With the increase of human usage, waste plastics accumulate in the environment, which has a serious negative impact on the ecological environment.

Today, many food packaging materials manufacturing enterprises and related scientific research institutions are stepping up efforts to develop degradable packaging materials to replace traditional plastic products to solve the growing pollution problem. And the degradable new packaging materials can be recycled and utilized comprehensively, which not only has high environmental and social benefits, but also has considerable economic benefits. It is a sustainable green packaging.

At present, the more popular "green packaging" in the domestic and foreign markets mainly includes paper packaging, degradable plastic packaging, and biological packaging materials. For example, the United States further polymerizes lactic acid into biodegradable plastics; Italy uses corn starch to produce biodegradable plastic. China's biodegradable plastics have also developed rapidly, such as food containers made of starch such as potatoes and corn, and "light-biological dual-degradable" plastics, but the market share is not high. China currently also uses edible fruit and vegetable liquid plastic wrap for the preservation of fruit and vegetable packaging.

But for now, the cost of degradable packaging materials is higher than that of plastics, and many companies worry that rising prices will reduce consumers' desire to consume. However, according to Kemira ’s International Consumer Survey, 85% of Chinese consumers are affirmed that “I am willing to pay more for renewable packaging of food (such as cartons or other biological materials)” Respond. In addition, 65% of respondents in first-tier cities believe that food producers should bear the primary responsibility for reducing the amount of plastic waste in packaging.

As the "white pollution" caused by the development of plastic packaging materials is becoming more and more serious, people have recognized its harm to human living environment. Nowadays, the food packaging materials industry has entered a period of "revolution". The use of degradable food packaging materials not only helps the problem of food contamination, but also gives traditional packaging materials more functions.