Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, January 27, Topic: Takeout, express packaging into urban garbage "new trouble" relevant people suggest to speed up the regulation of packaging pollution

Xinhua News Agency reporter Gao Jianjun

"The community bin full of lunch boxes, garbage bins piled with an empty carton, see people shocking." Fan Chengling, a member of the Beijing Municipal Political Consultative Conference, said to reporters with concern. At the ongoing first session of the 13th Beijing Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, many members, including Fan, suggested that the packaging waste generated by food delivery and express delivery should be cleaned up.

With the rapid development of the Internet and e-commerce, China has become the world's largest food delivery country. In megacities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, young office workers are used to eating food at their fingertips. Zhang Jie, who works in a commercial building in Beijing's Huitong Times Square, told reporters that in the past two years, he and more than a dozen colleagues in his department have solved their food problems by ordering takeaway food on their mobile phones.

Public data show that the daily order volume of China's two major delivery platforms is more than 20 million. The industry predicts that by 2020, China's Internet payment population will exceed 750 million, and the penetration rate of food delivery will reach about 80 percent, that is, 600 million people will become online food delivery users. In addition, the number of express deliveries in China has grown to 40 billion, accounting for 45 percent of the global package volume and contributing more than 60 percent to growth. Behind the industry's booming growth is the proliferation of packaging waste and white pollution, said Fan Chengling. According to statistics, the use of plastic bags in the express delivery industry alone reached 14.7 billion in 2016.

"Sometimes I realize that I have created a lot of garbage by eating takeaways, which is not environmentally friendly, but I have no choice. I am too busy at work, and now I am not used to eating in restaurants." "Zhang Jie said.

2018 coincided with the 10th anniversary of China's "plastic limit". Zeng Xinmiao, a member of the Beijing Municipal People's Political Consultative Conference, found that the number of disposable plastic bags used in physical supermarkets and shopping malls has declined, but the overall use of disposable plastic has continued to increase because food and beverage takeout and express delivery industries must use packaging, which makes the "plastic limit" greatly discounted.

"Take-out plastic bags are only one or two yuan, sometimes businesses do not charge money, and the cost of use is quite low. At present, it is not obvious to rely on citizens' consciousness to reduce the use of takeaway packaging or carry out garbage sorting." Therefore, it is urgent to introduce mandatory policies to limit the use of disposable packaging, such as significantly increasing the cost of takeout packaging and requiring the transport of refrigerated or frozen items to use turnover boxes, Zeng said.

Dai Tiejun, a professor at the circular Economy Research Institute of Beijing University of Technology, said the average use time of ordinary plastic takeaway food boxes is only one hour, which may take hundreds of years to degrade naturally. If it is not sorted at the consumer's source, it will cause great disposal costs.

The relevant report on the key work of the Beijing Municipal Government in 2017 pointed out that the current China's waste treatment facilities in Beijing are running at full capacity for many years, facing many challenges. Beijing recently released a fiscal expenditure policy shows that in 2018, the municipal budget will arrange 620 million yuan of funds for China's waste treatment and waste sorting.

Many members of the Beijing Municipal Political Consultative Conference believe that it is necessary to speed up the establishment of a more advanced garbage recycling system, especially in the takeout and express delivery industries, formulate targeted packaging recycling regulations, and put recycling into the administrative track of the department or system.

Fan Chengling suggested in the proposal of the CPPCC that the takeout platform and express delivery enterprises must assume more environmental responsibility, such as using their own logistics advantages, establishing a recycling chain, and actively recycling waste packaging bags.

"Takeout and express delivery personnel should undertake the recycling task in the process of signing or sending express packages, and advocate face-to-face dismantling and recycling." Fan Chengling said that for the recycling of reusable packaging, you can return money according to the price, explore through the deposit system, return points, gift discounts and other ways to promote the recycling of express packaging.

Zeng Xinmiao believes that it is urgent to promote the widespread use of fully degradable plastic bags, especially to play the role of scientific and technological innovation, improve product performance and reduce the price of degradable plastic bags.

"To promote the development and use of fully degradable plastic bags, the government also needs to give support in relevant policies." Fan Chengling said.

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