The "Management Measures for the Packaging of Express Mail" is officially implemented, and the problem of excessive packaging of express delivery is expected to be curbed
Promote express packaging to be "thinner and greener" from the system
(2021-03-26) Manuscript source: Rule of Law Daily
□ Our reporter Xu Wei
□ The reporter's trainee reporter Liu Xin
In recent years, my country's postal industry has achieved leapfrog development, and the scale of mailing and delivery business has consistently ranked first in the world.
However, issues such as resource consumption and environmental pollution caused by mail express packaging have also attracted more and more attention.
On March 12, the "Administrative Measures for the Packaging of Mail and Express Mail" (hereinafter referred to as the "Administrative Measures") promulgated by the Ministry of Transport was officially implemented.
The "Administrative Measures" apply to the use, packaging operations and corresponding supervision and management of domestic mail express packages.
In an interview with a reporter from the Rule of Law Daily, a number of experts stated that the promulgation of the "Administrative Measures" is of great significance for establishing and improving the legal and regulatory system in the field of express packaging and accelerating the green transformation of express packaging.
Excessive packaging is a serious problem
Easy to cause environmental pollution
"In our daily life, most of the express delivery uses plastic packaging, and I feel that there are many problems." Ms. Sun from Shanxi is a young man who often buys online. She told the reporter of "Rules of Law Daily" that on the one hand, plastic bag packaging is actually The protection of express delivery is not very strong, and sometimes it is obvious that the outer packaging is damaged; on the other hand, plastics can also cause certain pollution to the environment.
"Express delivery often has excessive packaging." Ms. Sun said, "I once bought cakes on the Internet. When I sent it, it was wrapped in three or four layers inside and out. There were airtight bags, bubble bags, ice bags, and foam cartons. The outside was covered. A layer of plastic courier bags. Although this is to protect the courier from damage during transportation, it makes it very troublesome to disassemble the courier, and it is also very troublesome to dispose of the courier garbage after disassembly.
Ms. Sun’s complaints are not alone.
Mr. Li from Beijing told the reporter of the Rule of Law Daily that he felt that many materials in express packaging were not environmentally friendly and healthy, especially when shopping food online, the pungent smell of various plastics and tapes in express packaging was worrying.
He suggested that reasonable shatter-proof measures can be developed for fragile products, instead of simply adding fillers to prevent shattering.
In July 2020, the "Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Standardization of Express Delivery Green Packaging" jointly issued by 8 departments including the General Administration of Market Supervision pointed out that my country’s express delivery industry consumes more than 9 million tons of paper waste and 1.8 million tons of plastic waste each year. , And showing a rapid growth trend, the impact on the environment cannot be ignored.
Professor Liu Hongyan, Director of the Ecological Law Research Office of the Institute of Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that the large quantities of non-degradable plastic packaging bags, disposable plastic woven bags, and non-degradable plastic tapes have caused huge social waste and environmental capacity burden. Plastic packaging in express packaging The pollution problem in China is still severe.
Zhu Lei, dean of the Qingdao Research Institute of Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication and member of the first technical expert group for express packaging green product certification, said that although many companies have the ability to produce packaging products that meet green standards, the cost of some green packaging raw materials is relatively high. Large-scale use will increase the operating costs of enterprises, causing some enterprises to be reluctant to take the initiative to use, and its utilization rate needs to be further improved.
Mei Hong, a professor at the Law School of Ocean University of China, believes that express packaging still has the problem of low recycling rates.
On the one hand, many express materials themselves are not recyclable, and the secondary utilization rate of consumers is low; on the other hand, even if the packaging itself is easy to recycle, packaging recycling facilities and equipment in daily life are not common.
Liu Hongyan pointed out that the packaging standard system is not complete, such as whether the packaging is harmless, there is no mandatory national standard, the national standard for express green packaging is not perfect; the standardization level of express packaging products is not high, such as random packaging, large boxes for small use, and safe filling Substandard standards are even toxic and harmful; as well as the secondary packaging of e-commerce express delivery, it is also the current problem of mail express packaging.
Mei Hong believes that many problems have led to a vicious circle in the express industry, and the use of environmentally friendly packaging materials and the cost of packaging recycling will increase significantly.
Refine packaging operation requirements
Emphasize the concept of green transformation
It is not new that the problems of express packaging have caused concern. It is necessary to accelerate the green transformation of express packaging, which is inseparable from the support of relevant laws and regulations.
It is understood that the previous laws and regulations concerning the packaging of express mail mainly include the Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Wastes, the Postal Administration Law, the "Interim Regulations on Express Delivery", and the "Administrative Measures for the Safety Supervision and Administration of Postal Delivery.
Before the "Administrative Measures" was promulgated, relevant departments successively issued a series of documents, such as the "Guidelines for Green Packaging of the Express Industry (Trial)", "Regulations for Green Packaging of Mail Express", "Opinions on Accelerating the Green Transformation of Express Packaging" (hereinafter referred to as "Opinions" ")Wait.
Liu Hongyan said that the relevant laws and regulations before the promulgation of the "Administrative Measures" mainly focused on the operation and management of the express delivery industry, and insufficient attention was paid to product packaging safety and environmental protection requirements.
In addition, various green standards and regulations related to packaging are scattered in various industry regulations, but most of them focus on industry management and rarely involve green governance of product packaging.
"The documents issued by relevant departments are not a special law and regulation. There is no mandatory standard for express green packaging, and there is a problem of insufficient enforcement in practice. The content of the "Administrative Measures" is relatively comprehensive, and it belongs to administrative Regulations and legal levels are relatively high.” Zhu Lei said, after the "Administrative Measures" was formally implemented, the specific circumstances and standards for certain penalties became clearer.
In Liu Hongyan’s view, the "Administrative Measures" is important for establishing and improving the legal and regulatory system in the express packaging field, accelerating the promotion and implementation of mandatory national standards for the harmlessness of express packaging materials, establishing a unified, standardized, and binding express green packaging standard system, as well as electricity The standardized management system for merchants and express delivery has a significant boosting role.
Open the "Administrative Measures" and you can see that Article 1 stipulates that "in order to strengthen the green packaging management of express mail, ensure the packaging quality of express mail, regulate the packaging behavior of express mail, protect the legitimate rights and interests of users and the safety of delivery, save resources, and protect the environment... "In this regard, Liu Hongyan believes that the "Administrative Measures" centered on the spirit of the "Opinions", highlighted the concept of green transformation, and clarified the above-mentioned relevant provisions in the legislative purpose, establishing the fundamental direction of the green transformation of the mail express packaging industry.
Zhu Lei believes that the "Administrative Measures" has three highlights: First, it refines the packaging operation requirements, including the formulation of operating specifications, training of practitioners on packaging operation methods, and packaging recycling and reuse; second, it refines the supervision and management regulations, including The postal administration department focuses on inspection content, specific inspection measures, establishment of packaging coding and traceability management systems, as well as organizational evaluation, credit management, report handling, etc.; the third is to strengthen the construction of circular packaging systems in the field of circular packaging, and expand the scope of circular packaging applications Wait.
Mutual cooperation and collaborative governance
Broad social consensus
Through joint efforts, green development has become the consensus of the industry, the regulatory and standard system has been gradually improved, the pattern of mutual consultation and governance has basically taken shape, and the management of express packaging has achieved initial results.
It is worth noting that this year’s government work report pointed out that “promote the green transformation of express packaging”.
It is reported that this work was once again included in the postal express industry this year and is closer to the people's livelihood.
Hou Yanbo, a spokesperson for the State Post Bureau and deputy office director, said at the beginning of this year that the State Post Bureau will fully implement the opinions on accelerating the green transformation of express packaging, continue to improve the industry regulations, standards and policy systems that are compatible with the concept of green development; vigorously implement the "2582" "Project, carry out special treatment of heavy metals and specific substances in excess packaging bags and excessive packaging, and strive to reach 5 million recyclable express boxes (boxes) by the end of the year, and e-commerce express mail will no longer have a secondary packaging rate of 80%, and an increase of 20,000 A postal express network with standard packaging waste recycling equipment.
In order to further implement the detailed "Administrative Measures" and promote the green transformation of express packaging, how should relevant entities make their next efforts?
"Most of the standards that various entities should follow in the "Administrative Measures" have been formulated and announced, and are relatively mature, but there are still some that need to be continuously improved." Zhu Lei suggested that the existing regulations and systems should be refined in order to promote Further implementation.
For example, improve the recycling packaging standard, build a recycling packaging information system, refine the green product certification system and standards for express packaging, strengthen the packaging requirements for agricultural special products, and improve the level of packaging intelligence.
"The implementation of the "Administrative Measures" is not only related to the future development direction of the packaging industry, logistics industry, e-commerce platforms, commercial organizations and other related industries, but also involves the mutual cooperation and coordinated governance of related management departments." Liu Hongyan suggested that related industries must Taking science and technology as the guide, comprehensively improve the low-carbon recycling level of related industries, strictly implement and abide by the main responsibilities stipulated in the "Management Measures"; cooperate with each other, share results, and related financing, and do a good job in the industrial chain connection of various industries. Policy convergence of management departments.
Mei Hong suggested that the postal administration should strengthen the supervision of the implementation of specific requirements by relevant entities, and punish entities such as delivery companies and online shops that have unsatisfactory implementation or refuse to implement them in accordance with laws and regulations.
"The implementation of the "Management Measures" also requires relevant policy guidance, public opinion propaganda and the introduction of market mechanisms." Liu Hongyan suggested strengthening the guidance and supervision of public opinion, creating a good social atmosphere, and giving full play to consumers, industry associations, news media, etc. Supervise related illegal acts; give full play to the implementation mechanism of policy guidance and market operation, achieve "reward and punishment clearly", and increase the enthusiasm of relevant industries and entities to comply with and implement the "Administrative Measures".
Mei Hong suggested that delivery companies should choose packaging materials in accordance with the principles of environmental protection and conservation, such as reduction, reuse and recycling in the packaging process, set up collection points for express packaging materials in the community, and send people to recycle them regularly to achieve packaging. Material recycling, etc.; the public actively requests to reduce the amount of non-essential packaging used when sending mail express. After receiving the express, pay attention to the integrity of the unpacking, avoid packaging damage, and facilitate recycling and reuse.
"It is necessary to broadly consolidate social consensus, discuss and govern together, and build a social governance system for express packaging in which everyone is responsible and everyone is responsible." Liu Hongyan said.