Where did the express cartons, tapes and fillers go after ¡°Double 11¡±?
Xinhua News Agency, Shanghai, November 13thTitle: Where did the express cartons, tapes and fillers go after "Double 11"?
Xinhua News Agency reporter Du Kang
Just experienced "Double 11", and the express delivery has been delivered to my home one after another in the past two days. When opening the layers of wrapped goods with joy, many people are also worried about where all the express packaging waste will go in the end? How "green" is the express delivery industry?
The disposal of express packaging waste is still a problem
The latest data from Cainiao Network Technology Co., Ltd. shows that on the day of "Double 11", Tmall alone received 1.292 billion orders. In fact, from 5.69 billion pieces in 2012 to more than 50 billion pieces in 2018, the number of express delivery orders in China has grown rapidly in recent years. Industry insiders predict that the number of express delivery orders will exceed 60 billion in 2019. Behind the rapid growth of express delivery orders is the explosive increase in express packaging waste.
Express packaging is mainly made of corrugated cartons and plastic bags. According to a report on the characteristics and management status of express packaging waste in China recently jointly released by the All-China Environmental Protection Federation and other institutions, through estimates by practitioners and sampling and weighing, less than 5% of carton packaging waste is reused, and more cartons are recycled, accounting for about 80%.
However, from an environmental perspective, industry insiders recommend that cartons be reused rather than recycled. If recycled, the disposal chain of cartons will become longer, and the process of crushing cartons into pulp and reproducing them will still bring a lot of carbon emissions.
At present, the plastic packaging waste of express delivery is mainly plastic film, filler and transparent tape. According to the above report, they account for about 60%, 18% and 9% of plastic packaging respectively. These plastic packaging are of low value and difficult to recycle, and are mostly incinerated or landfilled as domestic waste. However, both consumers and sellers on various e-commerce platforms have a tendency to over-package.
In addition, Ni Yao, deputy director of the International Cooperation Department of the All-China Environmental Protection Federation, believes that the quality of plastic films used in some express packaging is worrying. "About 70% of these films are directly recycled from recycled materials, showing gray or black; about 25% are produced by mixing recycled materials with a small amount of virgin materials, generally showing yellow-green. Since packaging materials are mostly purchased by merchants on their own, they tend to buy packaging materials with lower prices. The source of recycled materials is unknown, which may cause environmental pollution during the production process and may also affect the health of consumers and couriers who come into contact with such materials."
It is not easy for the express industry to "go green" in an all-round way
In fact, as the "greening" of the express logistics industry has attracted social attention, some measures have been taken in various links such as packaging, distribution, and recycling.
Express delivery companies such as "STO Express" have set up recycling bins at express delivery points to encourage residents to return intact cartons to promote recycling; two-part electronic waybills are replacing the original four-part handwritten waybills. Yang Jun, deputy secretary-general of the China Express Association, introduced that the penetration rate of electronic waybills in the industry is over 90%, saving at least 40% of paper compared with the original; tapes are "slimmed down" and the width of tapes is reduced; large-particle gas fillers are used instead of small-particle fillers; "degradable" packaging bags are introduced, etc.
However, in the specific implementation process, there are still certain difficulties, and it requires the joint participation of express delivery companies, e-commerce platforms, merchants, consumers and other parties.
--Low willingness of users to cooperate. Taking the recycling of cartons as an example, Shenzhen University has set up recycling bins at the express collection and storage points to encourage students to disassemble express on site, but for convenience or privacy considerations, the number of people picking up parcels in one hour during peak hours is about 170, and only 7 are disassembled on site.
--Inconvenient recycling and storage at express delivery outlets. Some express delivery companies said that the express delivery stations have small space and cannot store a large number of recycled cartons; in addition, e-commerce platforms and express delivery companies have no clear incentive policies for the recycling and reuse of cartons, and the stations lack the motivation to recycle.
Plastic express packaging faces a greater problem of recycling. According to Cainiao, "some terminal outlets also recycle fillers", but these fillers take up more space, which undoubtedly increases the difficulty of storage. In addition, due to the low recycling value of plastics, most packaging plastics cannot enter the recycling channel and are incinerated or landfilled with other domestic waste.
--Overpackaging is common. Merchants and consumers often have the mentality of "multi-layer packaging can ensure the safety and integrity of products". At present, express delivery companies and e-commerce platforms have no specific requirements for merchants' packaging methods.
--Degradable plastic bags are expensive, and the degradation effect needs to be verified. Niu Zhijing, head of Cainiao's Green Action, said that the market price of environmentally friendly express bags is about 1.5 to 2 times the price of ordinary express bags. Xu Zhiping, director of the Environmental Sanitation Department of the Shanghai Greening and Beautification Bureau, believes that the quality of degradable plastics on the market varies, and there are many processes, so it is doubtful whether they can be completely degraded.
Looking forward to "mandatory standards" and "exploration of new formats"
In response to the bottlenecks of the express delivery industry's "greening", industry insiders suggest that while refining industry standards, market-oriented means should be used to explore new formats for express delivery.
Ni Yao believes that China's current policies and regulations on reducing excessive packaging and increasing recycling and reuse rates are "mainly based on advocacy, and lack corresponding mandatory or incentive policies, resulting in insufficient motivation for e-commerce platforms and express delivery companies to innovate green packaging."
Express delivery companies also believe that the promotion of green packaging needs to be forced to be promoted throughout the industry at the same time. "At present, China's express delivery industry is highly competitive and profit is thin. The use of green packaging means increased costs for enterprises. Unless the entire industry promotes it in a unified manner, a single company will find it difficult to withstand market pressure." Niu Zhijing said.
Ni Yao believes that "at this stage, we do not have environmental protection standards for express delivery industry packaging. Many express bags are of unknown origin and the production process is seriously polluted." There is no useless garbage, only resources that are placed in the wrong place. Wen Zonggu, director of the Circular Economy Industry Research Center of Tsinghua University, believes that "clear industry standards for packaging materials will effectively reduce the difficulty and cost of collection and sorting."
Some industry insiders suggest that green packaging should be used as one of the entry conditions for express delivery companies to engage in express delivery operations, to promote green information disclosure and green choices on the consumer side.
In addition, Zhong Fang, coordinator of the Social Innovation and Sustainable Design Laboratory of the Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts, suggested establishing a packaging material recycling mechanism and a recycling system to encourage the exploration of new express delivery formats. Zhong Fang introduced that some foreign companies have already made some attempts. For example, fast-moving consumer goods brands such as Procter & Gamble, Nestle, and Pepsi have cooperated with the circular e-commerce platform Loop. In addition to door-to-door delivery, Loop also collects used packaging bottles on site and realizes container recycling after special cleaning.