China’s Green Printing Drive: MEP Vice Minister Wu Xiaoqing Prefaces the 2012 Green Printing Handbook

The 2012 edition of the Green Printing Handbook was produced jointly by the Printing and Distribution Management Department of the General Administration of Press and Publication and the Science and Technology Standards Department of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, with Vice Minister of Environmental Protection Wu Xiaoqing invited to write its preface.

China has long turned its sustainable development strategy into practice, placing environmental protection at a strategic level, advancing energy conservation and emissions reduction on all fronts and concentrating its efforts on the most pressing environmental problems that hold back sustainable development and harm public health, with marked results. During the 11th Five-Year Plan period, national emissions of chemical oxygen demand and sulfur dioxide — the two major pollutants — were reduced by 12.45% and 14.29% respectively, and every key environmental quality target was completed ahead of schedule. That record reflects both the country’s determination and capacity to strengthen environmental protection and the translation of a green development vision into concrete action.

In September 2010, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the General Administration of Press and Publication jointly signed the Cooperation Agreement on Implementing the Green Printing Strategy, working together to move the printing sector toward greener development. Green printing refers mainly to printing methods that have a relatively small ecological footprint, produce less pollution and save resources and energy. Practicing it means limiting pollutants in printing raw and auxiliary materials, cutting pollutant emissions during printing production, regulating waste recovery and hazardous waste treatment, and carrying environmental protection requirements through the entire printing process — so that environmentally friendly printed products reach society, energy conservation and emissions reduction spread across the printing industry, and public health is safeguarded.

To implement the green printing strategy, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the General Administration of Press and Publication organized the drafting and release of China’s green printing standard, the Technical Requirement for Environmental Labeling Products — Printing Part: Offset Printing (HJ2503-2011). They also ran large-scale green printing publicity nationwide, trained representatives from relevant industry associations and more than 360 enterprises on the standard, and actively advanced green printing certification, which 60 printing companies have so far passed. These efforts have encouraged printing enterprises to raise awareness and rethink their approach, laying the foundation for the full implementation of the green printing strategy throughout the industry.

Recently, the State Council issued the Opinions on Strengthening Key Work in Environmental Protection (Guo Fa [2011] No. 35), which sets out arrangements for environmental protection in the new period and explicitly encourages the use of environmental labels, environmental certification and green printing products. This signals the state’s strong attention to green printing, points out the direction for its development, and serves as an important basis for vigorously advancing this work.

Implementing the green printing strategy will, I believe, drive technological upgrading and structural adjustment across the entire printing industry, create new development advantages and open up greater room for growth. The Green Printing Handbook offers a fairly comprehensive introduction to the purpose, significance, content and requirements of implementing green printing. I hope environmental protection and press and publication authorities in all localities, together with relevant publishing and printing enterprises, will study it earnestly, deepen their understanding of green printing, and contribute to the green development of the printing industry.

Vice Minister of Environmental Protection

November 1, 2011

— This article is reposted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-362016.html