When will express delivery packaging truly become green and environmentally friendly?
“Tearing off layer after layer of tape around the outer packaging, opening the cardboard box, inside there is not only foam filler but also several layers of newspaper. After removing all the packaging, I finally see the product I bought, and the product still has its own packaging. It really is layer upon layer.” Liu Hong, a Beijing resident who just moved into a new home, bought quite a few household items online. The items were all affordable and satisfying, but the express packaging worried him. “Some cardboard boxes are stiff and brand new. It is too wasteful to throw them away as garbage, but keeping them takes up a lot of space.”
In fact, many people have experienced what Liu Hong encountered with online shopping. He told reporters that the community trash bins are filled with all kinds of packaging waste. Besides cardboard boxes, there are also woven bags, plastic bags, non-woven bags and so on. “A lot of the packaging is still in good condition, yet it is just thrown away as garbage and cannot be reused. It is such a waste,” Liu Hong said.
Statistics from the State Post Bureau show that in 2015 the national express delivery business volume reached 20.6 billion items. Calculating at an average of 0.2 kg for one parcel's packaging box, the express delivery industry generated more than 4 million tonnes of packaging boxes last year, enough to fill 200,000 football fields. Calculating at an average of 0.1 sq m of tape needed for one express packaging box, about 2 billion sq m of tape was used in 2015. In the first half of this year, express delivery business volume reached 13.25 billion items, up 56.7% year on year.
Zhang Min, who runs an online shop on an e-commerce platform, is also helpless about the current situation of excessive packaging. “To prevent goods from being damaged during transport, sellers have no choice but to work on the packaging. After all, if something goes wrong during transport, buyers come to the seller to negotiate. If the buyer gives a negative review, it will affect business. I also think cumbersome packaging is not good, but there is no other way.”
The large amount of packaging materials produced by excessive express packaging, such as transparent tape, air cushions and plastic bags, is mainly made from polyvinyl chloride. Chang Jiwen, deputy director of the Research Institute of Resources and Environmental Policies under the Development Research Center of the State Council, said that polyvinyl chloride buried in the soil needs up to a hundred years to degrade, and if it is incinerated, it will produce large amounts of pollutants and harm human health.
Excessive express packaging also leads to a waste of resources. Data show that for 1 tonne of paper boxes and cartons that can be reused many times, if they are thrown away after one use, even if 100% of the pulp can be recovered, in the end only 0.8 tonnes of new paper boxes and cartons can be obtained, resulting in a 20% material waste.
“Achieving green and environmentally friendly express packaging is not a technical problem, but an economic cost problem,” Chang Jiwen said. At present, labour costs remain high, and the cost of recycling and using old cartons is even higher than that of new cartons. In addition, there are no explicit written provisions for packaging standards for express delivery and e-commerce.
“Express packaging should become ‘green’ as soon as possible.” Chang Jiwen said that relevant laws and regulations need to be established and improved to provide institutional guarantees for express packaging to “go green.” For example, environmental protection standards for transport packaging in the express delivery industry should be clarified, as should quantitative standards for various non-degradable materials used in packaging. In response to the problems existing in the express delivery industry, many countries have issued laws and regulations to control excessive packaging and other issues. It is understood that the State Post Bureau has already drafted a green development plan for express delivery, which is now under review.
“Economic levers should also play a role.” Chang Jiwen said that, for example, the tax lever can be used to regulate market behaviour in express packaging, increase the cost of non-degradable materials, and encourage recycling and reuse.
Recently, 32 logistics enterprises established a green alliance, promising that by 2020 they will replace 50% of packaging materials and replace fillers with 100% degradable green packaging materials. Chang Jiwen commented, “This shows that the express delivery industry is moving from self-reflection to self-awareness and has begun to put the concept of green express delivery into practice. In fact, green express delivery involves many actors, including packaging material suppliers, logistics enterprises, e-commerce platforms and merchants, and also concerns tens of thousands of consumers. Every party should participate.”