GOMEL, 15 March (BelTA) – Several projects for making environmentally friendly packaging are being implemented in Gomel Oblast, BelTA learned from the Gomel Oblast Committee of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection.
Belarus is gradually moving away from plastic packaging of goods to environmentally friendly paper-based packaging. Sales of goods in glass containers are on the rise. Retailers are now required to offer sacks (bags) made of paper, disposable paper dishware, and other kinds of packaging. A number of Gomel Oblast enterprises make paper for packaging purposes.
The Dobrush-based paper mill Geroy Truda continues implementing an investment project that provides for starting the production of coated and uncoated pasteboard. It will allow making bleached cellulose pasteboard for making printed products, for packaging foods and non-foods.
According to the Gomel Oblast Committee of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, the Gomel-based retail equipment factory GZTO has started making bags out of the organic polymer Ecovi-oF23D1, which is based on corn starch. Such bags can be used for packaging foods. They are fully biodegradable.
The establishment of an enterprise to make special kinds of packaging paper for making new kind of products at Svetlogorsk pulp and board mill is under consideration. Making bag paper with special qualities is the idea. Via manufacturing cooperation with producers of bags and sacks this kind of paper will satisfy the domestic demand for packaging for flour, sugar, milk powder, combined feed, cement, and dry building mixes. It will also allow exporting about 80% of the output to the European Union and Asia.
Conditions to allow Belarusians to stop using disposable packaging are gradually emerging. “The people's perception of packaging changes: in the past they thought about it as something extremely cheap, light, and disposable, this perception is changing now,” the source said.
The World Consumer Rights Day is celebrated today. This year's event is dedicated to resolving the problem of global plastic pollution. Close attention is paid to this topic in Belarus, too. The Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade Ministry's resolution No.14 of 19 February 2020 specifies a list of disposable plastic utensils, which cannot be sold or used in public catering outlets as of 1 January 2021. The list also includes forks, spoons, cups, dishes, and so on. A number of measures are being taken in the manufacturing sector and the information sphere in order to change the situation towards environmentally friendly ways.
Ecologists say that plastic pollution of the environment is a global problem that requires efforts not only of governments and government agencies but of every person. Statistics says that every Belarusian generates about 400kg of waste per annum. At present only about one fourth is recycled. All kinds of packaging, plastic bags, film and so on represent a considerable part of the average family's waste. At present Belarusians have an alternative. They can replace plastic packaging with reusable packaging, which can be recycled. Every consumer should understand responsibility for their actions, the Gomel Oblast Committee of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection concluded.
