West China News (Reporter Zhang Jiancheng and Wu Zhilong from Shaanxi Radio and Television Station's "First News") Online shopping has become an indispensable consumption method for modern people. According to statistics from the State Post Bureau, China's express delivery business volume exceeded 20 billion pieces in 2015. While the express delivery industry is developing rapidly, it has also brought about a huge consumption of express packaging materials. And tens of billions of express packaging waste is likely to cause environmental pollution and waste of resources. So, what packaging materials are generally used in the express delivery industry in Xi'an? How are the discarded packaging materials after online shopping handled?

Online shopping consumers: "If the package is a big box, you can put some things in it. In addition, the big bag can be used as a garbage bag. If it is small, just throw it into the trash can."

Online shopping consumers: "We don't keep it, we just throw it away."

Online shopping consumers: "Every time we go there, we just unpack it and throw it directly into the trash can."

Reporter: "Has the courier asked you if they can recycle it?"

Online shopping consumers: "No, we usually take the courier and leave."

"It's a pity to throw it away, but it's useless to keep it if you don't throw it away." This is true for online shopping consumers. The reporter visited the sending and receiving points of many express delivery companies in Xi'an and found that express delivery is generally tightly packaged in cartons, plastic bubble pads or outer plastic bags according to the different mailing items. The staff told reporters that it is a bit of a waste of materials to wrap online shopping items layer by layer, but in order to prevent damage to customers' items during transportation, there is no other way to do so.

Staff of a courier company: ¡°Customers always take away the bags and the items and won¡¯t open them in front of us.¡±

Reporter: ¡°Have you ever thought about recycling the bags to prevent contamination?¡±

Online shoppers: ¡°It seems not. We never talked about it because they are generally disposable and cannot be used a second time.¡±

The reporter saw workers carefully wrapping express items at a courier company¡¯s sending and receiving point in Xi¡¯an Sanqiao. They told the reporter that they receive and send four to five hundred express items here every day, and the plastic outer packaging bags alone require several bundles, not to mention cartons, tape and other items.

Reporter: "You'll use it up in one day, right?"

A courier company staff: "If the volume is large, it's about the same."

Reporter: "You'll use up one roll?"

A courier company staff: "Yes."

Reporter: "How many of these (black plastic) bags do you need in one day?"

A courier company staff: "Our store uses up four or five hundred at most in one day."

How should these courier wastes be handled? Can they be recycled? The reporter then went to a waste collection station in the northern suburbs of Xi'an, where he saw that most of the piles were cardboard boxes and white plastic packaging, and there were almost no black or gray plastic bags like those used for courier packaging.

The owner of the scrap collection station: "No, it's all garbage."

Reporter: "You don't accept that (express packaging bags) either?"

The owner of the scrap collection station: "Why do we accept that? We have no place to put it, and no place to throw it away. It's all garbage. Who would accept it for what?"

The owner said that recycled cardboard boxes can still be sold for a few cents per kilogram, and the filling foam and cushioning materials can also be recycled and processed. But no one wants the plastic outer packaging bags used for express delivery. Since most of them are non-degradable, recycling them and piling them up there will also pollute the environment.

It is urgent to turn express waste into treasure. Experts call for the establishment of a recycling system

The express delivery is collected, but the express waste cannot be effectively recycled; if it is discarded at will, it is likely to pollute our living environment. So, in the face of the rapid development of express delivery today, how can we scientifically and effectively solve these "express wastes"? Experts call for standardization and the establishment of a recycling system as soon as possible.

During the interview, the reporter learned that some express delivery companies have actually realized the pollution problem of "express delivery waste". Some express delivery companies have also advocated that couriers recycle packaging materials as much as possible when delivering express delivery. However, this is only an advocacy and it is impossible to directly ask online shopping consumers for it.

Courier: "If he dismantles it and puts it in our car, and then we take it back, just like this, remove the personal information, and then the packaging can be reused."

Reporter: "Does your company have regulations that require you to recycle this?"

Courier: "We have said that, but not many people can really do it. We try our best to tell them to leave this (cardboard box) for us, but some people are unwilling to leave it, and some people will take it away. Leaving this is to save costs, and the other is that people don't want to throw it around, and throwing it around is not good for people to clean up, and it is also environmentally friendly."

In this regard, Zhang Min, director of the Degradation Committee of the China Plastics Association and professor of Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, said that express packaging materials generally have two parts: cartons and plastics. Cartons can be recycled and reused, while most plastics are made of recycled materials, and carbon black and some things that are kept away from light must be added. Discarding it at will and burning it will cause harm to the atmosphere or soil. In today's rapid development of the express delivery industry, "express delivery garbage" should be enough to attract people's attention.

Zhang Min, director of the Degradation Committee of the China Plastics Association and professor at Shaanxi University of Science and Technology: "We hope that it can be recycled through degradation. For example, using polylactic acid, polylactic acid can be hydrolyzed under certain conditions to obtain low-grade products and raw materials. In this way, we can recycle them again. This is one aspect. Of course, we hope that there will be a government mechanism. We hope that the government can have a law and regulation to limit or ban plastics. It is best to use recyclable and biodegradable materials to make express packaging materials."

Professor Zhang also said that the removal of "express garbage" cannot rely solely on express companies. It also requires the joint efforts of the government, society and other parties to take certain measures and give corresponding policy preferences to solve the problem at the root.

Zhang Min, director of the Degradation Committee of the China Plastics Association and professor at Shaanxi University of Science and Technology: "Can we recycle these things that are currently in use and have been discarded in the past through the community or through our collective efforts? How can we run them to the manufacturers for recycling? We hope that recycling companies or packaging material manufacturers can work with the community to recycle them. For this recycling, we hope that our government will have certain regulations, such as certain tax cuts or certain support for them."

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