How to solve the "excessive packaging" of take-out
It is a common phenomenon that the packaging is exquisite and there are many gifts. There is no tableware option often "in name only".
In recent years, while the fast-growing food delivery industry has brought convenience to people's lives, the resulting food delivery waste has also grown rapidly.
Recently, a research report by the relevant research team of the School of Environment of Tsinghua University has attracted attention. According to the analysis of 35 million take-out orders, the plastic waste in the national take-out waste will weigh about 1.6 million tons in 2020, and the harmless treatment will be 1.6 million tons. Plastic waste costs about 2.45 billion yuan.
This data undoubtedly reflects the high social cost caused by the current takeaway garbage.
In order to reduce the environmental pollution caused by take-out packaging, the industry has been carrying out relevant "plastic reduction" actions, such as the "no tableware" option initiated by the platform as the first step to reduce the source of take-out tableware, and calls for Use non-woven or paper packaging instead of plastic packaging, etc.
In the current takeaway industry, what problems still exist in takeaway packaging?
How to further promote the solution of the takeaway garbage problem?
Recently, all-media reporters from Guangzhou Daily interviewed some consumers, businesses, platforms and relevant people in the industry.
Text and photos / All media reporter Cheng Yilun of Guangzhou Daily (except signature)
investigation
Takeaway "overpackaging" becomes the norm
Recently, the reporter has ordered more than 20 takeaways, and every time before placing an order, he will check the "no tableware" option, but except for two restaurants, most of the rest of the businesses still provide tableware; among these more than 20 takeaways , the maximum package fee is 6 yuan, the minimum is 0.5 yuan, and the others are generally between 1 and 3 yuan.
However, the situation of "excessive packaging" of merchants is becoming more and more common, such as "small dishes in big bowls", "small ingredients in big bags", etc., resulting in a high packaging volume ratio; packaging materials are gradually becoming more environmentally friendly, and merchants using paper packaging bags have Of the 10 companies, 4 use non-woven thermal insulation bags, and the rest still use ordinary plastic packaging bags, but because there are still plastic film components in many cartons, and consumers are less likely to recycle non-woven thermal insulation bags , the waste generated by these takeaways will still cause environmental pressure.
Send tablecloths, send clay pots, send baking trays, coffee packaging...
Consumers eat takeaways like "unpacking the blind box"
Three quicksand buns, three shrimp dumplings, and a chicken claws totaled 87.5 yuan. When the takeaway was delivered to the reporter, it was found that it was a slightly "excessive" takeaway: open the exquisite non-woven insulation bag outside After packaging, in addition to three large paper lunch boxes covered with plastic film, there is also a paper envelope, which contains a plastic tablecloth, plastic gloves, etc. with an area of about one square meter.
A bowl of rice, a pudding, and a takeaway from a restaurant even created a sense of ceremony of "unpacking the blind box" - a casserole pot comes with the rice bowl, and a ceramic pot comes with the pudding. A small teacup, and the teacup lies in a carton four times its size.
In addition, the packaging bag also includes disposable chopsticks, plastic spoons, plastic forks, and plastic boxes containing appetizers.
One of the most exaggerated is a packaging bag about 20 centimeters long and shaped like a carp. When it was opened, it was only a palm-sized soy sauce bottle and a mustard bag.
However, this is not the most exaggerated.
Ms. Gu, a citizen, works in the CBD of Tianhe District. Since there is only one hour of rest and lunch every day, in order to improve the efficiency of dining, Ms. Gu often orders takeaways with colleagues in the same department.
But once a little takeaway experience made Ms. Gu laugh or cry: she chose a claypot restaurant, and ordered more than 20 copies of claypot rice, the price ranged from 25 yuan to 40 yuan, but unexpectedly every one was made with rice cooker The inner pots are individually packaged, "After we finished eating, there were suddenly more than 20 pots in the office, and the scene was quite embarrassing. Afterwards, we called the merchant to ask the merchant, and the merchant said that it would not be recycled, so everyone had to throw away the pots together. , the recycling pressure on cleaning workers is very high." In addition, in order to attract more consumers, some businesses directly "order barbecue takeaway and give away a roasting plate" and "order a beef hot pot and give a small pot".
Even in the beverage industry, in order to improve brand recognition and consumer experience, many businesses will work hard on packaging.
Taking a tea beverage shop as an example, the reporter also checked "no tableware" when purchasing the beverages from the shop. However, in the gift of tea, there are not only degradable plastic straws, but also double Packaging - a layer of plastic lamination cover, plus a layer of removable plastic cover, in addition, there are also plastic openers, plastic toys, etc., which are all "packaged as standard".
Similar situations can be described as numerous in the consumer group.
"Eating a takeaway these days, just unpacking it is hard work." Consumer Xiao Li is also very puzzled by the "excessive packaging" in the takeaway industry today: "In the past, when ordering a takeaway, most of it was an ordinary cup. Milk tea or a boxed lunch, but nowadays, ordering a cup of coffee may include subpackaged coffee liquid, packaged mineral water, packaged fresh milk, ice cubes, coffee cups, and even coasters, heat insulation sleeves Wait, after a cup of coffee, these takeaway packages alone can fill a trash can."
Environmental protection box bags "not environmentally friendly"?
The "zero cutlery" option is fake?
Beautifully packaged takeaways can certainly improve brand awareness and users’ consumption experience, but in the long run, it has also caused many consumers to shout “waste”.
"Especially when I was at home due to epidemic prevention and control, my family relied on takeaways for three meals a day, and the resulting takeaway garbage could reach up to twenty bags at most." Xiao Li said.
Uncle Zhang, a sanitation worker, is in charge of garbage hauling in a residential area. Uncle Zhang revealed that every day he is in charge of four buildings with a total of more than 140 households, and he has to transport garbage trucks three times a day only during lunch and dinner. Most of them are take-out garbage. Sometimes we clean out the take-out lunch boxes separately, and some of them are of good quality and can be reused; in addition, there are garbage such as paper bags and non-woven thermal bags, some of which are dedicated Insulation bags are reusable, but basically everyone throws them out with the takeaway box.”
Non-woven thermal insulation bags, paper bags, etc. are the changes initiated by the platform in recent years for "plastic reduction".
"But in fact, due to oil stains and other reasons, the current thermal insulation bags and food paper bags can hardly be recycled. When they are transported to the garbage transfer station with domestic waste, the pressure on environmental protection may be even greater than that of plastic bags." According to Li Xiankun of Hui Environmental Protection, in terms of food packaging, there are currently four main types of packaging materials on the market: polypropylene plastic (PP), polystyrene plastic (PS), paper, and aluminum foil.
Among them, the carbon emission generated by the popular non-woven packaging is actually 11 times that of ordinary PP plastic bags, which means that the non-woven fabric needs to be reused 11 times to truly achieve the effect of carbon reduction.
Similarly, there are some degradable packaging lunch boxes made of corn starch. Due to the special degradable materials, if the carbon reduction effect is to be achieved, special recycling methods and processing equipment must be used.
"On the one hand, many places do not yet have such recycling and processing capabilities. On the other hand, many paper lunch boxes still have a layer of PP glue, which is difficult to sort, and the final destination is also landfilled or incinerated as domestic waste. From a macro perspective, it is also a great waste of social resources if these takeaway garbage is not classified well, because the production materials of degradable lunch boxes are grain or straw, which can be used in other fields such as farming." Li Xiankun said that takeaways want to To achieve the goal of "plastic reduction", the core is not only to reduce the use of plastics in total, but more importantly, to include the classification and recycling of the end, "if not effectively used, these non-woven fabrics, degradable lunch boxes, aluminum foil, etc The cost and pollution will also be greater.”
Also slightly "embarrassing" is the "no tableware" option. The reporter noticed that although major takeaway platforms have begun to encourage consumers not to use tableware when buying takeaways from 2021, when reporters order takeaways and other consumers According to the feedback, some merchants will still ignore this option and deliver tableware together.
The reporter has called a number of merchants about this, and most of the responses they received were "the staff were too busy to get to the meal, so I simply ordered tableware", "didn't pay attention when packing" and so on.
One of the merchants told the reporter that a piece of tableware will cost them a few cents. "From our point of view, even if more tableware is delivered, consumers will be less likely to complain about it; on the contrary, we will be worried because Bad reviews for not delivering cutlery.”
Environmental protection costs are "passed on": consumers "pay the bill" for takeaway packaging
The increase in the number of take-out orders, coupled with the "excessive packaging" and "luxury packaging" of take-out, make the problem of take-out packaging waste not to be underestimated.
According to research estimates by the team of Wen Zongguo, a professor at the School of Environment, Tsinghua University, the amount of plastic used in the food delivery industry in 2020 will be 1.6 million tons; Duan Huabo's team from Shenzhen University conducted a life cycle assessment based on the estimated amount of garbage, and estimated that in 2019, a total of about 90 million tons will be produced. 10,000 tons of takeaway waste (including 578,000 tons of plastic waste, 279,000 tons of paper waste, 80,000 tons of wooden chopsticks, and about 10,000 tons of metal waste, etc.), the carbon emission generated by it exceeds 2 million tons. The price is undoubtedly "shared" on the consumers.
According to Analysys data, a total of 17.1 billion take-out orders will be generated in my country in 2020, which means that consumers pay a cost of 34.2 billion yuan for packaging.
Even from an environmental point of view, businesses are not using plastic products, but these environmental costs are ultimately borne by consumers.
Take a 70-yuan takeaway from a restaurant ordered by the reporter as an example. The takeaway is packaged in a casserole, and also comes with side dishes, among which the packaging fee is displayed as 3 yuan.
According to the chef of a certain restaurant, the actual cost of such a takeaway is not that high, but the packaging like casserole can give consumers a feeling of "earning": "According to the online wholesale price, A casserole is 5 yuan, fish ingredients are 17.9 yuan, rice is 0.8 yuan, and side dishes are 1.5 yuan. If the cost of labor and store rent is not calculated, the cost of take-out is only 25.2 yuan.” Then take a pudding that sells for 32 yuan as For example, "Most puddings are prepared with pudding powder, and the general cost is 2 yuan. If it is made in a good way, the cost is about 5 yuan; even if a ceramic cup is included, the packaging cost is 2 yuan. But few consumers will count the takeaway. the cost of."
However, there are also some consumers who are willing to "calculate".
Citizen Apple discovered the "packaging fee routine" of some businesses.
She told reporters that when she was shopping for takeaways in a restaurant last year, she found that the homepage of the merchant's store said "you only need to collect the merchant's store and pay 0.1 yuan to get a free cup of herbal tea", but after ordering the meal, Apple found that the packaging fee was 4 yuan, of which the packaging fee for herbal tea was 2 yuan.
But when she received the takeaway, she found out that the so-called herbal tea drinks are actually boxed herbal teas bought in supermarkets, and no additional packaging is required.
Since then, Apple has begun to pay special attention to the composition of the "packaging fee". She found that when ordering take-out, there are many similar business "routines", such as "add potato chips for free", "add cilantro for free", etc. In fact, once the package is divided Consumers are also required to pay the corresponding packaging fees; when she orders barbecue, each skewer will be individually packaged, thereby accumulating packaging fees.
"The reason why this is so common is because the packaging fee will not be levied by the platform. Merchants pass on the pressure in this way. In the final analysis, the wool comes out of the sheep." Apple told reporters.
explore
Solving the problem of takeaway garbage requires joint efforts
Previously, rice dumplings, moon cakes, cosmetics and other commodities have also faced the controversy of "excessive packaging".
After a series of policies have been introduced, these products have gradually achieved "slimming".
"At present, my country has not yet formulated corresponding standards for take-out packaging. Most of the take-out packaging is designed by the merchants, and the packaging fee is also set by the merchants. In principle, the current take-out packaging is still based on food safety. At the same time, environmental protection requirements are important. Consider factors." said a takeaway platform.
"It is not easy to set standards for takeaway. It needs to do a good job of top-level design and standardize the standard or garbage disposal system of takeaway packaging from the perspective of the whole life cycle." Li Xiankun told reporters.
During the interview, the reporter and the interviewee also discussed the possibility of solving the problem of take-out garbage.
Degradable materials, weight reduction, recycling, bring your own tableware...
Multi-party exploration of "plastic reduction" solutions
Although degradable materials are difficult to recycle, for now, degradable materials are still the high-quality "plastic reduction" solution in the minds of many people in the industry.
At present, there are many kinds of degradable materials on the market, such as environmentally friendly aluminum foil, degradable wheat straw, paper, or synthetic corn starch.
Zeng Yongping, dean of the School of Environment at Jinan University, pointed out that using bio-based materials to produce plastics, the current bio-based replacement potential for traditional plastics exceeds 90%.
Although the cost of bio-based plastics is still high at present, the cost of bio-based plastics can be greatly reduced by synthesizing starch first and then synthesizing bio-based plastics from starch.
"We estimate that compared with 2020, the cumulative carbon dioxide emissions of the global plastics industry will increase from 25gt to 112gt in 2060, and these plastic wastes will build a carbon dioxide carbon pool of 85gt. Therefore, only increasing the plastic recycling rate There is no way to fundamentally change the trend of plastic waste growth.”
Zeng Yongping also pointed out that there are still many problems and limitations in the recycling of plastics, "With the current technology, we can mainly recycle high-density polyethylene, polypropylene and other materials on a large scale, covering only about 50% of plastics. Second, in the process of recycling, secondary plastic production will lose 30% of raw materials; in addition, plastics are prone to aging, the number of recycling is limited, and the willingness to recycling is low." He said that this also makes takeaway packaging The application of degradable materials in the field has become a difficult problem, and multiple parties are required to jointly explore a reasonable path.
The researchers believe that to solve this problem, it may be possible to refer to the current extended producer responsibility system in Europe, America, Japan and other regions, that is, "the responsibility of the producer needs not only in the production process, but also extends to the entire life cycle of the product. In particular, recycling and disposal after disposal”.
This requires the joint efforts of packaging manufacturers, restaurants, consumers, platform companies, logistics systems, sanitation systems, recycling companies, and the government.
According to the reporter's understanding, various explorations are also underway.
For example, since last year, in response to the increase in the amount of non-woven bags, the China Industrial Textiles Association has begun to cooperate with takeaway platforms to explore the recycling of non-woven bags, and pilot cooperation with merchant stores for recycling; The plastic lunch boxes are broken, cleaned and rebuilt to realize the "rebirth" of takeaway lunch boxes.
In addition to material replacement, Li Xiankun, who pays attention to the recycling process, also believes that in order to reduce the environmental pollution of takeaway packaging, the most important thing is to reduce and recycle. The specific operation includes three points: the first is to change the business ecology of the community, and make 70% of the living The necessities are handled by the shops in the community, driving supermarkets, mom-and-pop shops and other takeaways within a radius of 800 meters to carry out unpackaged, low-carbon, and frugal delivery of takeaways and other commodities; Take-out plastic, cardboard and other packaging waste are effectively recycled and utilized as resources; thirdly, recycling is further encouraged by recycling plastics and cardboard at high prices and subsidizing recycling companies.
Similar explorations are underway.
According to the reporter's understanding, the large-scale recycling of plastic lunch boxes has been piloted in Guangzhou University City before. Through the takeaway platform, it has cooperated with universities, catering businesses, and recycling and recycling enterprises to explore the classification, recycling and recycling mode of plastic lunch boxes. Some companies have begun piloting trackable "recycled lunch boxes" equipped with chips. According to ideal conditions, each cycled lunch box can be used for one and a half to two years, and can be recycled at least 150 times.
This kind of model may be spread to various places such as industrial parks and office buildings in the future.
In addition, some businesses are also launching environmental protection activities.
For example, some beverage stores have launched "4 yuan can be directly reduced if consumers bring their own cups"; some catering companies are also brewing "let consumers bring their own lunch boxes" service.