Recently, the average daily express delivery business volume in the country has exceeded 5 million pieces, where to go with packaging?

With the arrival of the year-end consumption season, the postal express industry has also ushered in the peak business season, according to the data of the State Post Bureau, entering November, the country's average daily express delivery business volume exceeded 11 million. A large number of express delivery has produced a lot of packaging, where do these packaging go? Is the concept of recycling popular?

At an express delivery station in Chaoyang District, Beijing, the reporter saw that the shelves were full of large and small express packages. After unpacking the parcel at the station, many pick-up people will put the packaging into the green recycling bin in front of them. The staff is responsible for sorting and recycling these materials, and the good packaging such as cartons can be used in the next delivery, and the unusable ones are handed over to the recycling company for reprocessing and recycling.

Jin Rui, the manager of the Cainiao Station, Beijing Chaoyang District, Jinju Jiayuan District F Store: We now recycle 100 to 200 pieces of packaging every day, and now the volume of goods is relatively large, and a green recycling box has been added, and about half of the cartons can be reused.

The person in charge of the site calculated for the reporter that each carton can be recycled once to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 37 grams. Since entering the peak season of express delivery business, the average daily carbon reduction of the station is about 5.5 kg.

As an important part of the green governance of the express delivery industry, whether the concept of packaging recycling is popular, with questions, the reporter conducted research in many communities in Beijing.

Citizen Mr. Lu: If I encounter a good quality express packaging, I will keep it and then use it next time I send the express.

Citizen Mr. Bai: I usually take the express delivery, and the packaging is put in the recycling bin, for the sake of environmental protection.

In the interview, the reporter learned that most citizens are willing to participate in the recycling of express packaging. However, due to the lack of recycling facilities and limited recycling channels, many people will put the packaging in the garbage bin of the community for convenience and wait for the sanitation personnel to deal with it. Broadening recycling channels and enriching recycling methods is still an important means to improve the green governance ability of express packaging.

The pilot of large-scale application of recyclable express packaging continues to advance

In fact, since 2021, the State Post Bureau has cooperated with the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Commerce and other departments to carry out the pilot work of large-scale application of recyclable express packaging, and has achieved initial results in enriching application scenarios such as government affairs, 3C, and fresh food, expanding recycling methods such as door-to-door recycling and post station recycling, and updating product materials and technical models.

In front of the postal express point on the campus of Bohai University in Jinzhou, Liaoning, the green recycling box that has just been put into use is a corrugated box intelligent recycling device jointly developed by Liaoning Post and Jinzhou Bohai University, which can recycle books and plastic bottles in addition to cartons.

Tian Yufeng, staff of Jinzhou Branch of Liaoning Provincial Post Bureau: We take out these can be reused for secondary reuse, and we can not be reused and thrown inside.

In the warehouse of the e-commerce platform, the reporter saw the intelligent packaging technology on the commodity packaging line, when the target gun scanned the goods, the background system would automatically calculate the appropriate model packaging box that matched the volume of the goods, and reduce the use of packaging materials by optimizing the packaging structure.

In addition to e-commerce platforms, express delivery companies are also participating in the research and development and promotion of packaging products that are easy to recycle and regenerate at the end. At an express outlet in Shanghai, the reporter saw a special waste plastic recycling point. According to the technical requirements, the newly produced packaging contains 30% recycled plastic, and will be returned to the express delivery company for use, forming a set of large-scale application mode of recycled closed-loop packaging.

Zhao Guojun, Director of the Postal Development Research Center of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications: The parallel of green packaging and recycling and other green initiatives will further enhance the industry's ability to serve the high-level development of the economy while reducing costs, increasing efficiency and reducing emissions.

The green governance of express packaging still needs the joint efforts of many parties

Although the national postal industry regulatory authorities, express delivery companies, e-commerce platforms, etc. are developing and promoting the governance of packaging, the packaging problems caused by hundreds of millions of parcels every day are also a problem that the industry must face urgently. Where is the "blocking point" of green governance of express packaging, and how to better improve the level of recycling?

Experts told reporters that at present, the awareness of low-carbon and green development of China's express delivery industry has gradually increased, and the green governance of express packaging has achieved initial results. However, compared with the requirements of high-quality development, there are still deficiencies in systematic, collaborative and effective.

Zhao Guojun, Director of the Postal Development Research Center of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications: First of all, the cost of green packaging is too high. For example, the procurement cost of recyclable packaging boxes is higher than that of cartons of the same specification, coupled with the operation and management costs such as recycling, cleaning, loss, and allocation, the burden on enterprises is bound to increase. At the same time, another aspect is that the upstream and downstream collaborative chain of packaging production, e-commerce platforms, and express delivery companies has not yet been established.

In order to enhance the green governance ability of express packaging, at the beginning of this year, the State Post Bureau implemented the "9218" project for green development, making it clear that by the end of the year, the proportion of e-commerce express mail no longer secondary packaging will reach 90%, and the two treatments of excessive packaging and plastic pollution will be further promoted, and the use of recyclable express packaging will reach 10 billion pieces of mail express, and 8 million corrugated boxes with good quality will be recycled and reused. In this regard, experts said that the joint efforts of many parties are still needed to promote the green and circular development of express packaging.

Zhao Guojun, Director of the Postal Development Research Center of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications: The overall need for the joint efforts of the government, enterprises and the public. At the government level, it is necessary to increase the scope and intensity of sampling and testing of express packaging, and continuously strengthen the source management of express packaging. At the enterprise level, it is necessary to adhere to the concept of green development and promote the reduction and application of materials such as packaging tape and corrugated boxes. At the public level, it is necessary to establish the concept of green environmental protection and actively use green packaging for express delivery.