After "buy, buy, buy", you are no longer busy with "throwing and throwing". Recyclable express packaging is coming to you and me
At present, the circular packaging launched by different companies is actually a small cycle within a single enterprise. If the circular packaging can be shared among various enterprises, and the "small cycle" can be turned into a "big cycle", the cost of reverse logistics can be further reduced.
Li Zhiqiang, Associate Professor, Department of Packaging Engineering, School of Light Industry Science and Engineering, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology
The "618" mid-year promotional activities have come to an end, and many people will face the trouble of "throw and throw" express packaging after enjoying the "buy, buy and buy" pleasure.
In the face of the mountains of express packaging, I don't know how many people are worried again.
In recent years, my country's express delivery business has developed rapidly. By the end of 2021, the average daily express delivery business volume has exceeded 300 million.
Ten years ago, that number was only 10 million.
A large amount of waste generated by disposable express packaging not only brings distress to personal disposal, but also causes huge pressure on the ecological environment.
In the just-concluded mid-year promotional activities, some different figures appeared in the express packaging, and the recyclable express packaging gradually entered the vision of more consumers.
In addition to the carton, there are also "Qingliu Box" and "Drift Box"
Jiang Feng, who lives in Fengtai District, Beijing, often buys fresh and frozen food from e-commerce platforms.
I don't know when, he noticed that the express delivery is no longer packaged in a white disposable foam box, and the goods delivered to him are sometimes only wrapped in a simple thermal bag with a small ice pack inside.
"In most cases, the courier came to the door after confirming that there was someone at home, and directly took the goods out of the incubator and handed it to me, and then he took the box away." Jiang Feng introduced to reporters.
The incubator he mentioned is the circulating fresh incubator that is currently being used by many e-commerce and logistics companies.
Different from the disposable foam boxes commonly used in the delivery of fresh and frozen goods in the past, the circulating fresh incubator has a longer service life, usually more than one year, and can be recycled hundreds of times.
Moreover, compared with the disposable foam box that can cause white pollution, the main thermal insulation material of the circulating incubator is mostly foamed polypropylene (EPP) material, which not only has good thermal insulation, but also is lighter and more durable, and is easier to use in the natural environment. degradation.
In addition to fresh and frozen commodities with special transportation conditions, many companies have also launched their own recyclable express packaging for larger quantities of ordinary commodities.
In December 2017, JD Logistics first launched a pilot recycle express box "Qingliu Box", whose box can be recycled more than 50 times under normal circumstances.
In July 2021, SF Express's recyclable packaging box Fengduobao (π-box), which was upgraded for the second time, was also officially put into pilot operation. As of the end of December last year, 720,000 units had been put in, and 2.8 million were recycled.
In addition, recyclable express packaging such as "drifting boxes" and green recycling express boxes launched by Suning Easy Shopping Logistics and China Post Express Logistics have also been put into pilot operation in the market.
At present, most of the recyclable express packaging for ordinary commodities is made of honeycomb panels made of polypropylene plastic (PP), which is light, durable, and easy to fold.
According to the information provided by Xiaoxiangjiajia, one of the main manufacturers of such products, under normal circumstances, the service life of the recycling box of this material can reach 3 years, and after reaching the service life, its polypropylene material can achieve more than 90% recycling Rate.
Not only that, most of the current recyclable express boxes are packaged with Velcro, snaps, zippers, etc., which can achieve zero tape use, which also solves the previously criticized excessive use of tape.
Li Zhiqiang, associate professor of the Department of Packaging Engineering, School of Light Industry Science and Engineering, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, said that compared with the widely used disposable cartons made of corrugated paper, the actual carbon emissions of recyclable packaging boxes made of PP plastic will be lower.
"Papermaking itself will generate a lot of greenhouse gases and sewage, and paper products are mostly disposable, which is very wasteful. Degradable and reusable plastic products have relatively low carbon emissions." And From the perspective of manufacturing cost, he believes that although the cost of a single recycle box is relatively high, as the number of cycles increases, its cost will gradually be diluted. Much lower than the cost of disposable cartons."
There is a breakthrough in solving the difficulty of recycling
With so many benefits of circular packaging, why is it not common in daily life?
In fact, whether it is good or bad has always been one of the blocking points that plagued the large-scale application of recyclable express packaging.
The process of express packages from the terminal express station to the hands of consumers is called the "last mile" of logistics, and circular packaging faces the reverse logistics problem of this "last mile": how to deliver it to consumers recycling packaging take back?
Different companies have their own solutions to this problem.
According to a courier at a SF Express business site, they encourage users to sign in person as much as possible when using recyclable packaging.
When signing for receipt, the courier will take the package out of the recycle box. After the recipient checks the package for damage and confirms receipt, the courier will directly take the recycle box back to the site.
If the recipient requests to temporarily store the package, the courier will take the package out of the recycling box with the consent of the recipient, and paste the face sheet on the waterproof bag on the inner layer of the package.
It is then placed at the staging point, and the courier takes the recycling box away.
This avoids leaving the recycle box in the recipient's hands as much as possible.
Appropriate application scenarios may be another way to effectively avoid the "difficulty in recycling" dilemma and accelerate the landing of recyclable express packaging.
Fresh and frozen commodities that have high requirements for transportation conditions and usually require face-to-face receipt by recipients have taken the lead in becoming the main object of large-scale application of recyclable express packaging.
Duan Yanjian, the project leader of Jingdong Logistics' "Qingliu Plan", introduced to reporters that in 2015, Jingdong fully used foldable thermal insulation turnover boxes to replace disposable foam boxes in its fresh food business.
The service life of the incubator is more than 1.5 years, and the average number of uses of a single box can reach 130 times.
In 2021, JD.com will use a total of more than 60 million circulating incubators, "equivalent to reducing the use of the same number of disposable foam boxes."
And due to its improved thermal insulation performance, the use of disposable ice packs has been reduced by about 60,000 tons and dry ice by about 30,000 tons.
In addition, with the help of unique codes and radio frequency identification technology (RFID), JD Logistics has realized "one code per box", and with the recycling packaging management system, it can monitor the whole process of each recycling packaging.
Li Zhiqiang also believes that finding the right scene can effectively improve the recycling efficiency of circular packaging.
"In places where express delivery temporary storage points are widely used, such as colleges and parks, recycling packaging can be piloted first. The picker can remove the outer recycling packaging on the spot at the temporary storage point, leave it in the temporary storage point, and finally the logistics company centralized recovery".
At the same time, he also suggested that companies can adopt flexible and diverse incentives to encourage users to actively use and return recycled packaging.
The logistics enterprise Cainiao Network's practice of recycling disposable cartons may provide a useful reference for solving the problem of "difficulty in recycling" of circular packaging.
Niu Zhijing, the person in charge of the Cainiao Green Project, introduced that Cainiao encourages users to take the initiative to send the received express packaging cartons back to the Cainiao Station, and give priority to the next delivery.
"We sometimes exchange eggs and other items for the old cartons in the hands of users, and if the user chooses to use the old cartons to send, we will send a 3 yuan coupon to encourage it."
"Small cycle" will turn into "big cycle"
In addition to the need to solve the "last mile" recycling problem, Li Zhiqiang believes that from a macro perspective, the overall reverse logistics problem of circular packaging is another bottleneck that needs to be broken through in its large-scale application in the future.
"At present, the logistics direction of most commodities is from the southeast to the northwest, and there are fewer in the opposite direction. This will lead to less opportunities for some recycle boxes to go back after arriving at the receiving place. This will lead to a backlog of recycle boxes and have to be empty. Shipping back will result in additional costs." Li Zhiqiang said that although only from the perspective of manufacturing costs, as the number of cycles increases, the cost of circular packaging will be lower than that of disposable packaging, but if the reverse logistics cost is added, the overall cost of circular packaging is still higher.
Earlier, Duan Yanjian admitted in an interview that the currently launched "Qingliu Box" will suffer from "difficulty in selection" during reverse flow, and there are difficulties in the balanced configuration of various warehouses. Uneven distribution among warehouses can easily lead to waste of packaging space, so placement is relatively cautious.
Li Zhiqiang believes that sharing will be the key to solving the reverse logistics problem of recyclable express packaging.
"Currently, the recycling packaging launched by different companies is actually a small cycle within a single enterprise. If the recycling packaging can be shared among various enterprises, and the 'small cycle' can be turned into a 'big cycle', the cost of reverse logistics can be further reduced. "Li Zhiqiang said that the premise of sharing is the unification of standards, and he suggested that industry associations, government counterpart management agencies, etc. take the initiative to take the lead in promoting the formulation of relevant standards, so as to pave the way for realizing circular packaging sharing and reducing reverse logistics costs.
Duan Yanjian also revealed that it is expected that by the end of 2023, JD Logistics will complete the pilot of the shared model of circular packaging, and the probability of users seeing the "Qingliu Box" will greatly increase.
In addition to popularizing recycling boxes for downstream consumers, Jingdong Logistics, Cainiao Network, Suning Easy Shopping Logistics, etc. also promote recycling boxes to upstream merchants, encouraging manufacturers to use recycling boxes when producing and packing goods.
The recycling box will enter the logistics warehouse with the goods, and the logistics warehouse will carry out unified temporary storage management. After accumulating to a certain amount, it will be returned to the enterprise factory in batches to achieve real recycling.
Maybe in the near future, we really have to say goodbye to the mountains of express packaging.