On September 2, the State Administration of market supervision and Administration held a special press conference with the theme of "national standard for food and cosmetics with restrictions on excessive packaging of commodities". At the meeting, Chen Hongjun, deputy director of the Technology Department of the State Administration of market supervision, introduced and interpreted the new standard.

According to its introduction, the new standard stipulates the requirements for packaging porosity, number of packaging layers and packaging cost, as well as the corresponding calculation, detection and judgment methods. It is clearly pointed out that the packaging of cosmetics shall not exceed four layers.

In fact, in recent years, some cosmetics enterprises in the market have excessive packaging, which is manifested in too many packaging layers, too large void ratio and too high cost, which exceeds the basic function of packaging itself. Research shows that packaging waste accounts for about 30% to 40% of municipal solid waste in China. Most of these packaging wastes are produced by excessive packaging.

It is understood that the new version of the national standard for limiting excessive packaging requirements for food and cosmetics (hereinafter referred to as the new standard) was issued on August 10 this year and will be implemented on September 1, 2023, replacing the old standard implemented since 2009.

With the implementation of the new standards, the phenomenon of excessive packaging in the cosmetics industry is expected to be further curbed.

1.16 new packaging standards for cosmetics

It is reported that the specific content of the new standard includes three levels.

First, it standardized the packaging requirements of 31 categories of food and 16 categories of cosmetics. Among them, the 16 types of cosmetics belong to the general liquid unit, cream emulsion unit, powder unit, aerosol and organic solvent unit, wax unit, toothpaste unit and other units, including hair care cleaning, skin care water, gel, bulk powder, organic solvent and so on.

Secondly, it greatly simplifies the judgment method of excessive packaging of goods. Consumers only need to check the weight or volume of the goods themselves and measure the volume of the outermost packaging. Through calculation, they can preliminarily judge whether there is excessive packaging of goods.

Third, the requirements for the number of packaging layers are strictly limited. The food and its processed products in food shall not exceed three-layer packaging, and other food and cosmetics shall not exceed four-layer packaging.

Compared with the old standard issued in 2009, the new standard is more applicable, scientific and operable, which is reflected in terms and definitions, packaging porosity limit requirements and calculation methods, and space coefficient.

Among them, in terms of terms and definitions, the new standard modifies the definitions of terms such as contents, number of packaging layers, packaging porosity, over packaging, necessary space coefficient of goods and adds the definition of comprehensive commodity terms. In terms of calculation method, the new calculation method of packaging porosity solves the problems of evading supervision, such as increasing the initial packaging volume and adding other commodities.

2. The over packaging rate of cosmetics reached 32.9%

In fact, over packaging has always been a chronic disease of cosmetics. Many well-known brands have "overturned" here.

In 2020, Shanghai Municipal Market Supervision Bureau will carry out quantitative supervision and random inspection of commodity packaging for multiple categories of products sold on tmall, Taobao, Oriental Shopping and other five platforms. The results showed that the rate of unqualified cosmetics online was as high as 70%.

In June this year, the latest circular issued by Shanghai Market Supervision Bureau showed that in the supervision and random inspection of cosmetics (excessive) packaging, the unqualified discovery rate was 32.9%.

From the perspective of products, gift box and suit products are mainly involved in excessive packaging. The main problems are too high packaging porosity and too many layers.

For example, last year, the "La Mer classic pet facial makeup kit" and the "Bobai flower and her fragrance holiday gift box" on the blacklist have only 2 main products, the total capacity is 75ml and 130ml respectively, which are only normal water milk and essence capacity, but the size of their boxes is comparable to that of shoeboxes.

Another consumer reaction, "just bought a bottle of 30ml essence, but the packaging is big box", "take away the wrapping paper, foam, the remaining space can also be loaded with 4 or 5 products."

A person in the industry believes that this extremely luxurious packaging is related to the current brand paying more attention to marketing investment. Young consumers' pursuit of beauty also makes brands willing to spend a lot of time on packaging.

3. Environmentally friendly packaging is an inevitable trend

The new standard will be implemented soon. What will be the impact on the cosmetics industry and related enterprises?

Many industry insiders pointed out that on the whole, the new standard is conducive to guiding the green production and consumption of the cosmetics industry, avoiding resource waste and increasing the burden on consumers, and realizing effective supervision.

Some people in the industry further pointed out that environmental protection packaging is the inevitable trend of the development of cosmetic packaging.

In recent years, international giants have begun to gradually increase investment in green production. For example, P & G promises to reduce the use of fresh plastics for packaging by 50% by 2030; Unilever promises that by 2025, the group will reduce the absolute use of more than 100000 tons of plastic packaging and accelerate the use of renewable plastics; L'Oreal announced the launch of innovative cosmetic packaging bottles and plans to put innovative products into production in 2025.

It is worth mentioning that the new standard will be officially implemented on September 1, 2023, setting a two-year transition period for enterprises and markets.

Chen Hongjun said at the meeting that after the release of the new standard, food and cosmetics manufacturers need to carry out compliance design for product packaging according to the requirements of the new standard. At the same time, they need to consume inventory packaging and goods for sale, especially cosmetics, which have a long shelf life and a relatively long consumption cycle in circulation. The setting of transition period is conducive to avoiding the impact on production and operation activities and new waste.

However, in the view of consumers, too many fancy packaging is a waste of resources. The product premium brought by excessive packaging is ultimately paid by consumers themselves. "Instead of packaging like this, it's better to improve the product quality."