Big packaging but little “connotation”. The product is not as heavy as the box: there are only 8 small pieces of pastries in the two-layer iron box.

　Big packaging, little “connotation”, the product is not as heavy as the box

　　There are only 8 small pieces of pastry in the two-layer iron box

　　□ Reporter Han Dandong

　　□ Wang Jing, our intern

　　"A large gift box actually contains three small cans of black sesame paste. Place them side by side, and the volume is less than a quarter of the gift box." Recently, Mr. Yao from Lingbao, Henan, bought a set of sucrose-free black sesame paste. I made a gift box, thinking that eating it would be good for the body, so I gave it to my parents, but to my surprise, I was complained about.

　　Mr. Yao said that the gift box looks very luxurious, the packaging has a festive atmosphere, and it is heavy in the hand. But when I opened it, I was dumbfounded: what caught my eye was the thick and tight foam. After removing the foam, I revealed three small jars of black sesame paste inside.

　　"I thought that such a big gift box should contain a lot of black sesame paste, but I didn't expect that there were only 3 small cans, each of which was only 150 grams." Mr. Yao said that after seeing it, his parents couldn't help but complain about him and asked him to do it in the future. Don't buy this kind of flashy gift box. "It costs a lot, but the weight is small."

　　"Businesses use such large foam to increase the size of gift boxes. Isn't this a form of over-packaging? It's really irritating to waste so much packaging material just for the sake of looking good." Mr. Yao was dissatisfied with this.

　　Mr. Yao's experience is not unique. A recent investigation by a reporter from "Rule of Law Daily" found that as the Spring Festival approaches, many merchants have launched exquisite gift boxes, but some gift boxes are obviously over-packaged. They are not only flashy, but also make some consumers question whether they are "paying for packaging."

　　Experts interviewed said that during holidays, overly exquisite gift boxes appear in large numbers and are packed in layers. This excessive packaging phenomenon is not desirable. On the one hand, it increases production and transportation costs and easily causes waste; on the other hand, it also increases the purchasing cost of consumers. Improving the current situation requires joint efforts from relevant departments, businesses, and consumers.

　　Various gift boxes on supermarket shelves

　　Flashy triggers complaints

　　A few days ago, Ms. Li from Zhejiang received a beautiful fruit basket from a friend who came to visit her. After Ms. Li opened the package with high expectations, she was disappointed: "It's so beautifully and tightly packaged on the outside, who would have thought that there's a bunch of bubble paper inside?"

　　"The fruit basket looks quite big, with mangoes, mangosteens, passion fruit, cherries and other fruits." Ms. Li recalled that after seeing off the guests, she opened the fruit basket and found that there were only The surface layer is fruits, and the basket is full of wrapping paper and soaked in water, which makes a large basket "complete". She was very angry about this kind of packaging. After seeing the store address on the fruit basket, she went directly to the fruit store to inquire about it.

　　Ms. Li felt that the wrapping paper was soaked in water simply to make the "exquisite fruit basket" heavier to carry, but the store owner said it was to preserve the freshness of the fruit and refused to admit that there was a problem with the packaging. Ms. Li also noticed that although the fruit basket contained some relatively high-priced fruits, the quantity was very small. If purchased individually, the price would not even be half of that of the fruit basket.

　　The reporter opened the online software of a certain supermarket on his mobile phone and found that there were many gift boxes with similar over-packaging.

　　For example, there is a "Dragon Universiade Fruit Gift Box" priced at 188 yuan with a total weight of 2.5 kilograms. The orange gift box contains six kinds of fruits including Vietnamese dragon fruit, Qiuyue pear, and sunshine rose green grape. The reporter noticed these The packaging of fruits is not only the outermost orange box, but also has one or two layers of packaging for each type of fruit. The introduction of this gift box reads, "High-end fruits are gathered together to make gift-giving decent and fun."

　　During the interview, the reporter found that the problem of excessive packaging of goods has been criticized by consumers.

　　As the Spring Festival approaches, Xiao Yi from Heping District, Tianjin City, has already begun to prepare New Year’s goods to visit relatives. Xiao Yi said that he started to go to the supermarket for various purchases after get off work in the past few days, and the gifts he bought were mainly various gift boxes, which made him miserable: "We have many relatives in our family, and we always have to bring some when visiting relatives during the New Year. Gifts, because of their reputation, are all bought in gift boxes, otherwise they would be embarrassed to take them out, and products in such gift boxes are not only expensive, but also take up a lot of space.”

　　Xiao Yi complained to reporters: "Our family not only gives out a lot of gift boxes, but relatives also bring gift boxes when they come to visit. Every New Year, the room will be full, and after opening it, there is not much 'connotation', which creates There’s quite a lot of packaging waste.”

　　"Recently, many large supermarket chains have put on the shelves a lot of large gift boxes with very beautiful packaging. The gift box packaging is completely designed to cater to the preferences of some consumers, and uses some grand-looking packaging to make consumers feel that they are worth their money. It is also a face-saving gift to give to friends and relatives, but to be honest, this kind of gift box has no reuse value. It just costs money to buy packaging and face. After a big gift box is opened, the actual product content inside is often determined by a small plastic bag. It can be packed in." Ms. Yang, who works in Beijing, complained, "It is inconvenient to take such a big box home, and the packaging is scrapped after one use, which generates a lot of garbage and is not environmentally friendly."

　　Exquisite packaging and price increase

　　Buy for a decent gift

　　On a certain shopping platform, the reporter searched for "New Year's gift box". Most of the various products that appeared on the shopping page were beautifully packaged, and some were even in solid wood boxes.

　　When the reporter browsed a store selling ham, he found that the store sold a variety of "ham gift boxes" with prices ranging from 158 yuan to 488 yuan. On its product introduction page, the reporter browsed this paragraph: "Exquisite relief Paired with a flip-top leather buckle design, it makes the gift more elegant.”

　　According to the product details, you can choose from 3 different gift boxes for the same product, namely high-end embossed gift box, classic red gift box, and classic gold gift box. The prices of different gift boxes vary by dozens of yuan.

　　The reporter asked the customer service whether the weight displayed on the purchase page of the product was the net weight or the total weight. The customer service replied that the weight marked was the net weight.

　　In product reviews, most buyers commented that the packaging was "extremely beautiful", but they commented on the small quantity of ham. "I bought three hams for 168 yuan, which is not as heavy as the box." A consumer said.

　　Ms. Zhang, who lives in Tongzhou District, Beijing, recently purchased a certain brand of pastry gift box online for her boyfriend's family under the introduction of a friend.

　　Ms. Zhang said: "After all, it is the Chinese New Year, and gift boxes are more affordable when given to others, but to be honest, this kind of gift box is quite wasteful." Ms. Zhang showed the reporter the gift box she bought: a two-layer iron box with only 8 yuan in it. The dim sum, which is the size of an egg yolk puff pastry, is in sharp contrast to the large iron box. "And there is no way to reuse this iron box. It requires a lot of force to open and close, so in the end I had to throw it away."

　　According to Ms. Zhang’s description, the reporter searched for the same dim sum gift box she purchased on the shopping platform. After clicking on the product details, the reporter saw that the price of the dim sum gift box was 125.8 yuan, and the size of the gift box was 220 long × 180 wide. × 135 height (mm), the net content of 8 pastries is 420 grams, and the actual weight of the gift box is not stated on the gift box. When the reporter asked the store customer service staff about the total weight of the gift box, the reply was "I don't know the weight of the gift box." ".

　　Ms. Zhang told reporters: "The weight of the food is indeed 420 grams, but the weight of the tin box is at least 1.5 kilograms. Now that I think about it, I don't know how much of my money was spent on this tin box."

　　Afterwards, the reporter visited a medium-sized supermarket in Hongqiao District, Tianjin. The store has a full range of products. At the end of the year, the door of the store will be filled with all kinds of New Year's goods.

　　The reporter chose a honey gift box. The clerk introduced that the product is honey imported from Russia. The outer box is brown-red and printed with hot stamping technology. The size of the basic New Year gift box is 24 length × 35 width × 7 height (cm). After the reporter asked again and again, the clerk took out an unsealed box of samples. There were 3 small bottles of honey in the inner box, with a weight of 250 grams. The glass bottles were also printed with exquisite patterns, but these 3 small bottles of honey only occupied the entire box. In less than half of the space, there is only a flower-shaped spoon placed in the other half. The box weighs more than the item itself.

　　In supermarkets, according to the reporter's observation, many customers prefer products with exquisite packaging when choosing gifts. "Although this hardcover model is more expensive than ordinary ones, it is more decent to give it as a New Year gift," said a customer who was buying New Year gift boxes.

　　"Appearing decent" is one of the reasons why these exquisite gift boxes have a market.

　　Li Kai (pseudonym), who runs a small supermarket in Liaoning, told reporters that he has nothing to do with such over-packaged New Year gift boxes. Supermarkets buy these New Year gift boxes every year, and even because the gift boxes occupy a large area, they have to be stored every year near the Spring Festival. These gift boxes create a temporary warehouse. "Actually, I sometimes recommend small-sized but very 'real' New Year gift boxes with less packaging to customers, but some customers find it difficult to get them. Many people buy gift boxes just because of the 'face-saving' packaging."

　　Excessive packaging increases costs

　　Efforts to combat waste

　　Excessive packaging is not advisable. Recently, the China Consumers Association reminded consumers to pay attention to the practicality of goods, abandon flashy "face projects", and jointly oppose over-packaged goods. As the Spring Festival approaches, relevant departments in various places have also launched actions to address the issue of excessive packaging. For example, the Market Supervision Bureau of Hainan Prefecture in Qinghai Province takes publicity and guidance as the entry point, standardizes behavior as the focus, and supervision and law enforcement as the key point. It continues to increase the intensity of holiday market supervision and strictly investigates the illegal excessive packaging of holiday goods.

　　"Whether from the perspective of consumer rights or environmental protection, excessive packaging is undesirable." Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communication Law Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, said that the Cleaner Production Promotion Law clearly stipulates that companies must It should be reasonable, and the material, structure and cost of packaging should be compatible with the quality, specifications and cost of the products inside, so as to reduce the generation of packaging waste, and excessive packaging is not allowed.

　　Zhu Wei believes that packaging is a design for the beauty of goods and to ensure the safety of goods transportation. However, today’s gift box packaging is large and heavy, which increases transportation costs to a certain extent, and also increases packaging materials and packaging costs, resulting in A huge waste and increased purchasing costs for consumers.

　　Lawyer Wang Yi, senior partner of Beijing Yingke (Xi'an) Law Firm, told reporters that if a merchant counts excessively used packaging materials in the total weight and sells them to consumers, and the goods are short of goods, it should be considered a fraud and needs to be punished. Consumers are compensated. However, if the merchant clearly states the quality and net content of the packaging materials at the time of purchase, and the consumer knows and accepts it, it can only be considered excessive packaging.

　　How to improve the phenomenon of over-packaging of product gift boxes during holidays?

　　Wang Yi said that improving the phenomenon of excessive packaging in the market requires the joint efforts of the government and businesses. Relevant departments and operators should abide by the provisions on "opposing waste" and "avoiding excessive packaging" in laws such as the Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste, the Circular Economy Promotion Law, and the Cleaner Production Promotion Law. For example, the Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste stipulates that the standardization administrative department of the State Council shall organize the formulation of relevant standards based on the national economic and technical conditions, the prevention and control of environmental pollution by solid waste, and the technical requirements of the product to prevent excessive packaging from causing environmental pollution.

　　"Production and consumption are cause and effect for each other. Administrative departments need to strengthen supervision to allow companies to strictly implement relevant laws and regulations during the production process and avoid excessive packaging. Consumers need to cultivate the concept of green, low-carbon, conservation and environmental protection." Zhu Wei said that my country is In a human society, when giving gifts, everyone will consider whether the gift can show sincerity and face. Exquisite packaging has become an important consideration for people when giving gifts. Consumers should gradually change their consumption concepts and reject the "face project." (Legal Daily)