"White pollution" is hard to avoid

While enjoying the convenience of ordering food online, people also have to pay for the environmental pollution that comes with it. So, how serious is the environmental pollution caused by takeaway garbage?

Boss Zhao, who runs a Liangpi restaurant in Tiantongyuan, told reporters that his store has just been open for less than two months, and takeaway is the main source of operating income. At present, he can receive 20 to 30 takeaway orders every day. The packaging cost of a takeaway (1 transparent lunch box + 1 pair of chopsticks + 1 plastic bag) is about 1 yuan.

China News Network reporters noticed that Boss Zhao's store is not big, with only four tables in the store, but the business performance of Meituan Takeaway has reached more than 500 orders per month.

In fact, the order volume of various takeaway platforms is growing rapidly, which also means that takeaway garbage is also increasing. Although there is no authoritative statistical data on the amount of takeaway garbage, we can get a glimpse of the whole picture from the order volume of the takeaway platform.

According to the data released by Meituan Waimai, Ele.me, Baidu Waimai, etc., the daily order volume of these three food delivery platforms is about 7 million orders. Based on this, we can roughly calculate that if one plastic bag is used for each takeout order and each plastic bag is 0.06 square meters, the plastic bags used every day can cover 420,000 square meters, which is approximately equivalent to 59 football fields, and it takes about 15 days to cover a West Lake.

China News Service reporters noticed that based on factors such as reducing garbage and "white pollution" and ensuring campus safety, some universities in China have successively issued bans to prohibit takeout from entering campus.

Data map. On April 6, 2015, in Chongqing, this is a cleaner transferring large bags of garbage to the sorting point at the stacking yard to facilitate unpacking and processing. Photo by Jiang Shangou Source: Oriental IC

Takeaway garbage is basically not recycled

"Recently, every time I order takeout or pack outside, I always feel guilty. This is creating white pollution." Ms. Jin, who works in Shenzhen, orders takeout once a week on average. She told reporters that the takeaway boxes she ordered are almost always packed in plastic boxes, plus plastic bags and disposable chopsticks. Where does all this takeaway garbage go in the end?

China News Network reporters found that at present, takeaway garbage is generally difficult to recycle. Disposable chopsticks, plastic bags, and foam lunch boxes are basically in a state of no one recycling. Although transparent plastic lunch boxes can be recycled, the recycling volume is also very small.

China News Network reporters consulted several people in charge of waste recycling. Master Li, who is engaged in waste recycling in Fangzhuang, Beijing, told reporters that transparent pure polypropylene (PP) plastic lunch boxes can be recycled, and the purchase price is 3 yuan/kg. Foam lunch boxes and other types of takeaway lunch boxes are basically not recycled because they are too cheap, difficult to clean and difficult to sell.

Master Liu, who is engaged in second-hand recycling in Chaoyang, Beijing, told reporters that foam lunch boxes are generally not accepted. The recycling price of transparent PP plastic lunch boxes is 2 yuan/kg, and they must be clean. Unclean ones are not accepted. "The transparent PP plastic lunch boxes will be recycled and sold to plastic processing factories, which will crush them into particles and make them into other plastic products."

"White foam lunch boxes are still very common in some construction sites." Zhai Qiuping, a plastic analyst at Zhuochuang Information, told China News Network reporters that this kind of foam lunch box is very cheap, only a few cents each, and few people recycle it because it is very troublesome to clean it and the recycling value is not great. It is generally treated as landfill or incineration.

Mr. Luo, a takeaway deliveryman who has worked in Tiantongyuan for more than two years, told reporters that most regular restaurants currently use transparent lunch boxes, and occasionally they can be seen using foam lunch boxes to pack rice. Although I heard that transparent lunch boxes can be recycled, I have never seen anyone recycle them, and no one picks them up at ordinary times.

Data map. Disposable foam tableware on sale in the Nanning market. From Nanning Evening News

Reducing takeaway garbage requires efforts from all parties

As takeaway gradually becomes a lifestyle habit, how to reduce takeaway garbage is an issue that urgently needs to attract the attention of the whole society. Takeaway platforms, merchants, consumers and even the whole society should pay attention and make efforts.

"Now many people around me order takeaways. I never thought about the pollution problem before. Now I think it does cause pollution." White-collar Wang Yan suggested that efforts should be made to improve people's environmental awareness, reduce the use of disposable tableware, and call on everyone to bring their own tableware.

Mr. Shen, the food deliveryman, suggested that the use of disposable lunch boxes should be reduced, and the use of recyclable transparent and environmentally friendly lunch boxes can be vigorously promoted.

Some netizens also suggested that the takeaway platform can provide some options, such as whether to bring your own chopsticks and whether the bags can be recycled.

"Nowadays, people often throw away the takeaway boxes directly after eating, and few people keep them, wash them and continue to recycle them." Zhai Qiuping said that to reduce takeaway garbage, on the one hand, we should encourage everyone to order less takeaway and eat out more often; on the other hand, we should also strengthen the establishment of garbage classification and recycling systems to turn garbage into treasure. At present, China still has a lot of work to do in garbage classification, recycling and utilization.

China News Service reporters noticed that the "13th Five-Year Plan" outline announced this year has clearly proposed to limit the use of disposable items. Improve the recycling network of renewable resources and strengthen the connection between the classification and recycling of domestic waste and the recycling of renewable resources.

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