Trillion-Yuan Packaging Market Turns Low-Carbon: Fashion Packaging Upgrades as BOPLA Film Enters Mass Production with ~70% Lower Raw-Material Carbon Emissions Than PP

In the trillion-yuan packaging market, the folding carton segment has long stood out as one of the few high-margin areas: premium boxes can reach a 28% gross margin, and a still-climbing market continues to draw packaging giants.

Since 2020, however, a global wave of plastic bans and restrictions has accelerated suddenly, pushing the folding carton industry into a period of turbulence.

The reason is that folding cartons still rely on fossil-based materials in mounting, gluing, lamination, or varnishing, leaving some carton manufacturers exposed to the risk of losing customer orders.

Fashion brands step up green packaging plans

In 2019, fashion and textile names such as Chanel, Hermès, Burberry, Prada, Armani, and Adidas joined the effort.

A total of 32 global fashion and textile giants jointly signed the FashionPact environmental pact.

They made solemn commitments on three themes: slowing climate change, restoring species diversity, and protecting the ocean.

After FashionPact was signed, brands placed greater emphasis on “green, sustainable, and eco-friendly” concepts and gave more thought to integrating them into design and the supply chain, including product outer packaging that the public often overlooks.

In 2020, Gucci launched a new packaging design in response to its sustainability vision.

upholding environmental sustainability in both design and raw material procurement, with all materials green and low-carbon; other fashion giants are exploring similar moves, replacing packaging materials with eco-friendly, carbon-reducing options.

Folding carton packaging: no room for error

In 2020, China’s total retail sales of consumer goods reached 31,190.1 billion yuan, while goods exports hit 17,932.6 billion yuan; behind these huge figures lies booming packaging demand for baijiu, cigarettes, consumer electronics, food, daily chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and jewelry.

Analysis of an Alibaba.com report shows that among paper packaging categories in packaging and printing, gift boxes (giftbox) are the best-selling; the gift industry, closely linked to packaging products, is growing fast, and hot-selling gift sets are driving gift box sales.

China’s consumption upgrade and the rise of the post-90s generation as a core consumer group have further fueled the folding carton boom, as younger buyers favor high-appeal product packaging.

Yet these stylish, design-driven shopping bags and gift boxes often carry an ultra-thin plastic film on the inside or outside, used for matte finishes, waterproofing, scratch resistance, and enhanced tactile feel, directly elevating packaging quality.

Most of this ultra-thin film is petrochemical-based, difficult to fully degrade even over hundreds of years, and its production and use increase carbon emissions and pressure on the environment.

BIONLY enters mass production

In early June, an eco-friendly material independently developed by Xiamen Changsu—

BIONLY™ (a new bio-based degradable film material, BOPLA) was officially announced to be in mass production.

This brought domestic BOPLA products quickly to the global forefront and offers broad positive value for packaging reduction and environmental carbon reduction.

Changsu has the thinnest and most technologically advanced BOPLA film product on the market, and its

raw material comes from plant-extracted starch, offering good biocompatibility and degradability.

A representative of Zhonglun New Materials, parent company of Xiamen Changsu, said the company formed a dedicated technical team, continuously adjusted raw material formulations and optimized process parameters, and after three years of repeated experiments and pilot tests, finally developed a complete material formulation and process design.

“This large-scale production and application of BOPLA represents China’s world-leading level in biaxial stretching technology, and will effectively reduce the carbon footprint of plastic packaging products; its raw-material carbon emissions are about 70% lower than traditional fossil-based plastics such as PP.”

BIONLY™ shows clear advantages in printing and heat-seal performance, better displaying packaging colors and patterns while helping reduce glue usage for a more eco-friendly profile; it also delivers good mechanical and optical properties to meet the effect and tactile requirements of big-brand packaging.

Sustainable fashion remains a long and demanding journey, but brands exploring it will not stop; Changsu looks forward to meeting more brands along the way and working together toward Earth carbon reduction and sustainable fashion.

——Source reference: China Packaging Network (pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-378181.html