In recent years, the catering takeout industry in China has developed rapidly. It is understood that in 2018, the scale of Internet catering market increased by 112.5% year on year. But now, most of the takeout packaging is plastic, and the rapidly expanding takeout market also brings great pressure on the environment. In order to reduce environmental pollution, degradable packaging is becoming a new trend in take out packaging industry, paper lunch box is one of them.
China's takeout industry has developed earlier, and the takeout packaging has changed a lot. In general, the take out packaging in China has gone through three stages: foaming lunch box - PP plastic tableware - degradable paper lunch box.
1. Foam lunch box. Take out is developed from food packaging. The appearance of foam lunch box has changed the situation of food packaging with plastic bags. After the development of takeout, the foam lunch box has naturally become the first choice of many takeout businesses. The advantages of convenience and beauty make the foam lunch box gradually occupy the catering takeout market. According to the data of China Society of plastic processing industry, by the end of 1990s, the output of foamed lunch boxes had reached 5 billion, which were exported to the United States, Europe, South Africa and other countries.
2. PP plastic tableware. With the arrival of take out era, the requirement of take out packaging is becoming higher and higher. PP plastic tableware has quickly become the new favorite of take out packaging industry due to its high temperature resistance and strong characteristics. But no matter it's foam lunch box or PP plastic tableware, they can't escape the essence of "plastic".
3. Degradable paper lunch box. With the strengthening of people's awareness of environmental protection, degradable paper lunch boxes began to enter the take out packaging market. From the perspective of environmental protection, paper-based lunch boxes are easy to degrade and have little environmental pollution; from the perspective of safety components, paper-based lunch boxes are non-toxic and harmless; from the perspective of packaging texture, paper-based lunch boxes make takeout appear more high-end and quality.
Although take out packaging is developing, people's awareness of environmental protection is also strengthening, but in the current take out market, the market penetration rate of degradable paper lunch boxes is very low. Recently, the media launched a questionnaire survey on take out packaging for 100 consumers of different ages. The results showed that 66% of the respondents received transparent disposable plastic lunch boxes in takeaway, 21% of them received foam lunch boxes, other packaging accounted for 12%, and degradable paper boxes only accounted for 1%.
It's not hard to find that at present, the take out packaging used by most of the take out businesses in China is still dominated by plastic products that are difficult to degrade. However, with the continuous improvement of consumers' pursuit of environmental protection and takeout quality, degradable paper lunch boxes will become a new trend of takeout packaging, with huge market development potential.
In addition to market demand, some measures of take out platform are also promoting the development of degradable paper lunch box market. At the end of last year, Yiyao launched the "reassurance plan" for takeout packaging materials, and jointly reviewed and screened the disposable lunch boxes with the manufacturers, catering enterprises and China Packaging Federation, and successively released three batches of "reassurance list" for takeout packaging, including the paper lunch box manufacturers. The "reassurance list" project aims to solve the pollution problem of take out packaging from reduction, reuse, recycling and other aspects, and improve the market utilization rate of paper lunch boxes.
In 2017, meituan and China Environmental Protection Foundation established the "Qingshan plan special fund" to solve the environmental problems of take out packaging. The special fund has carried out a series of effective works around the advocacy of public environmental awareness and take away packaging plastic reduction, which is also conducive to improving the utilization rate of degradable paper lunch boxes.
The takeout industry is becoming the fastest growing segment of China's food industry, but the rapid development of the takeout industry has also brought many problems, and the environmental protection of the takeout packaging has become a hot topic at present. On the whole, the environmental protection level of take out market in China is low, and the development space of take out packaging such as degradable paper lunch box is huge. I believe that with the efforts of many parties, the takeout packaging industry will gradually change to environmental protection and green, and the future of takeout packaging will be more and more optimistic.
This article is quoted from the packaging and printing industry network