During a recent trip to the supermarket, I noticed an interesting change: the biscuit tins on the shelves seem to be quietly ‘transforming’. The usual metal packaging is now not only more sophisticated in design, but also has a conspicuous green label - ‘made from 85% recycled steel’. This cannot help but let me think: in this era of growing envtinmental awareness, the seemingly traditional metal cookie box packaging is undergoing what metamorphosis?   The Double Drive of Policy and Market Last year to participate in the German food exhibition in Cologne, a European buyer's words impressed me: ‘Nowadays, there is no green packaging certification, even the quotation is difficult to hand out.’ This is not alarmist talk. The EU's latest Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) is like a hammer, requiring all packaging to be fully recyclable by 2030. Across the pond, California has just passed a bill that would impose additional envtinmental taxes on non-recyclable packaging.   Consumer choice is more straightforward. According to McKinsey's latest research, more than 80% of consumers will take envtinmentally friendly packaging into account in their purchases, and nearly 70% are willing to pay 10-15% more for it. This is exemplified by my neighbour, Auntie Wang, who collects cookie tin containers for her needle and thread, and proudly tells me: ‘These boxes can be passed on to my granddaughter.’ The Green Secret of tin Box Manufacturing Into the workshop of a well-known biscuit tin manufacturers in Zhejiang, the traditional impression of oil stains all over the scene has disappeared. The factory director, Li Gong, pointed to the new water-based paint production line and said, ‘Although the cost of this equipment is 30% higher, but VOC emissions reduced by 90%, counting government subsidies, two years will be able to return to the capital.’ More surprising to me is their ‘corners bank’ - the production of waste materials classified storage, monthly by the recycling enterprises bidding for the purchase, this alone can increase revenue of more than 2 million yuan a year.   In the materials laboratory, engineer Zhang showed the latest research and development of ‘metal + straw’ composite materials. ‘This inner tray can be degraded in half a year after being buried in the soil,’ he said while breaking open the sample, ’the strength is completely up to standard, the cost is also lower than plastic.’   The Magic That Brought the Tin Box Back to Life The most spectacular transformation occurs at the end of a product's life cycle. A brand in Shanghai launched the ‘tin box drift programme’ is exemplary: consumers scan the code to register the empty box information, the next purchase can be deducted 5 yuan, the recycled tin box after refurbishment and put into use again. The operation director revealed: ‘The first batch of 10,000 metal cookie tins wholesale have been recycled three times, reducing the carbon footprint of a single package by 40%.’   A company in Guangzhou, on the other hand, has played a new trick. Their biscuit tin packaging has a built-in NFC chip, and with a touch of a mobile phone, you can view the full life cycle data from raw materials to recycling, and unlock exclusive recipes. ‘It's not a simple package, but a portal to connect consumers,’ the marketing director defined. Challenges on the Road to Disruption Of course, the road to transformation is not a straight one. The dialogue with Dongguan's Chen factory manager is quite representative: ‘The bio-coating is prone to rusting on rainy days, and we tested more than twenty recipes before reaching the standard.’ He made a calculation: the cost of green transformation increased by 25%, but therefore got a long-term order of an international brand, ‘the total account rather more cost-effective.’   More common trouble is the consumption habits. Zhao from Shandong laughed bitterly: ‘We designed the split tin box, many aunts thought the lids were mismatched and insisted on returning them.’ For this reason, they had to include an instruction card in each box.   The Future Is Here Standing at the crossroads of industry change, those companies that have laid out in advance have already tasted the sweetness. The roof of a cookie tin manufacturers factory in Suzhou is covered with photovoltaic panels, and the ‘zero-carbon tin box’ produced by the factory is still in short supply even at a premium of 15%; the smart tin box developed by a company in Hangzhou can remind the shelf life of food, and has become the new favourite of young mothers.   As a teacher who has been in the industry for 30 years said, ‘The tin box is still the same tin box, but the rules of the game have completely changed.’ In this green revolution, the only constant is change itself. Companies that incorporate envtinmental concepts into their product life cycles are writing a new chapter in this traditional industry.   Next time you pick up a biscuit tin box supplier product, take a second look – it may be carrying the future of the packaging industry.