What's the difference between express delivery and "plastic reduction"
The survey shows that China’s express delivery industry generates about 1.8 million tons of plastic waste every year. At the same time, take-out is also a “hardest hit area” for plastic packaging, and “bag-in-bag” situations often occur.
The "white garbage" brought by express delivery has become a regulatory pain point.
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"Now the express is piled up like a mountain, half of the packaging is plastic." On November 12, the courier brother Liu Shan (pseudonym) in Fengtai, Beijing, was worried about this while running for the seemingly unfinished express. Pollution of plastic waste.
The rapid development of online shopping has brought further prosperity in the express delivery industry.
On November 11th, on the day of the shopping spree, 675 million express packages left together with 675 million express packages.
Zhang Deyuan, deputy director of the Scientific Research Department of the Institute of Economic Reform of the National Development and Reform Commission, said in an interview with a reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily that the total express delivery volume this year is expected to reach 80 billion pieces, of which about 20% are packaged in plastic bags.
The "white garbage" brought about by online shopping has become a pain point in the regulation of the "plastic restriction order".
What is the difficulty in implementing the "plastic restriction order"?
According to a survey conducted by the official microblog of China Youth Daily, 59.7% of the respondents preferred "change public habits", 16.8% of the respondents thought that "new material development and promotion is difficult", and 12.7% of the respondents chose "shopping cost Increase”, 10.7% of the respondents said that “new areas are difficult to supervise”.
"Compared to carton, a plastic bag of 0.3 yuan is cheaper"
Beijing Express brother Zhu Wen (pseudonym) said that of the more than 200 express items he delivered on November 11, more than 100 were in plastic packaging, mainly some clothing, quilts, shoes, etc.
The reporter visited and found that the proportion of plastic packaging used in the outer packaging of express delivery by many couriers was 30%-50%.
Part of the express packages are packed in cartons. In order to ensure the safety of goods transportation, plastic fillers are also placed in the boxes, and most of the boxes are packaged with tape.
When express delivery reaches consumers, it often goes through multiple processes. In order to prevent damage, some businesses will choose to carry out multi-layer packaging or even excessive packaging before sending express delivery.
Most of these packaging materials choose to buy nearby or at low prices.
Searching an e-commerce platform, 100 express packaging bags of 35×45 cm cost 14.2 yuan, and in some stores, a packaging bag is as low as 0.039 yuan.
In addition to express delivery, take-out is also a "severe disaster area" with plastic packaging. "Bag-in-bag" often occurs. According to the reporter's observation, consumers order a portion of rice noodles on the take-out platform. The noodles and soup are packed in two plastic boxes separately. To prevent spillage, some businesses also wrap a layer of plastic wrap on the soup box, put it in a separate plastic bag, and then put everything in a large plastic bag.
Some couriers prefer plastic packaging bags.
Zhu Wen said that he had hardly used cartons when sending them, and he would use more than 10 packaging bags to pack consumers a day.
On the one hand, the plastic bag is portable, on the other hand, it is based on cost considerations.
For example, if you receive a 12 yuan express delivery, he can get a service fee of 2 yuan. Among them, the cost of packaging needs to be paid by himself. "Compared with a carton, a plastic bag of 0.3 yuan is generally cheaper."
"Plastic reduction" has a long way to go.
According to statistics from the Plastics Recycling Professional Committee of the China Plastics Association, my country uses about 3 billion plastic bags every day. As of 2019, the annual use of plastic bags exceeds 4 million tons.
Another survey showed that China’s express delivery industry generates approximately 1.8 million tons of plastic waste each year.
Where is the difficulty of "plastic reduction" in the e-commerce field
Since the "plastic limit order" was implemented in 2008, "plastic reduction" has been running for 11 years.
In recent years, as emerging business formats, e-commerce, food delivery and other fields have once become "blank areas" of the "plastic restriction order".
On January 19 this year, the "Opinions on Further Strengthening the Control of Plastic Pollution" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), known as the upgraded "plastic restriction order", was released, and the food delivery and e-commerce sectors were officially included in the "plastic restriction order" Category.
The opinion also clearly stated that by the end of 2022, postal express outlets in Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and other provinces and cities will first prohibit the use of non-degradable plastic packaging bags, disposable plastic woven bags, etc., to reduce the use of non-degradable plastic tape.
By the end of 2025, it will cover postal express outlets nationwide.
In contrast to the huge amount of use, the recycling rate of plastic bags is very low.
On November 11 last year, the “Research Report on the Characteristics and Management Status of China’s Express Delivery Packaging Waste” jointly issued by the environmental protection organization Green and Equality pointed out that in 2018, my country’s express delivery industry consumed a total of 851,800 tons of plastic packaging materials. The difficulty in recycling such express packaging waste, high recycling costs, and low recycling profits have caused about 99% (quality ratio) of my country's express packaging waste to be mixed into domestic waste.
Consumers rarely pay directly for express packaging, which affects the "plastic reduction" in the express delivery sector.
Some netizens said that most of the time online shopping is free shipping. Compared with supermarket shopping, the feeling of using plastic bags is not obvious, and they rarely care about plastic waste in the field of e-commerce.
"The difficulty lies in being too scattered." Zhang Deyuan said that compared with ordinary supermarkets, the users of plastic packaging in the e-commerce field are mostly small merchants. This group is large in number, the main body is scattered, supervision is difficult, and law enforcement costs are high.
At present, the research and development and production of alternative products for plastic packaging are still not mature enough, and the circulation efficiency of domestic express packaging is not high.
Zhang Deyuan took biodegradable plastic bags as an example. The period of domestic express packaging from purchasing, warehousing to circulation is about 30 days. Compared with foreign countries, there is a certain gap. For example, Amazon's logistics efficiency is about 13.5 days.
Degradable plastic bags stored for too long may cause performance degradation and affect the use effect.
Some netizens said that they wanted to do their part to reduce white pollution, but they had to use plastic bags when there were no suitable substitutes.
At the end of last year, an online poll conducted by the China Youth Daily showed that 86.6% of the respondents felt that there was a waste of plastic bags in the e-commerce sector.
53.0% of the respondents said that they are willing to pay a certain fee for e-commerce to use reusable environmentally friendly packaging.
Press the "accelerator" for "plastic reduction" frequently
Facing the big problem of "white pollution", all localities have continued to make efforts to reduce plastics.
Up to now, more than 20 provinces have issued an upgraded version of the "plastic limit order", pressing the "accelerator" for "plastic reduction".
Among them, six major industries, such as food delivery and e-commerce, have become the key "plastic reduction" targets of Beijing's new version of "plastic restriction order".
On November 10, Beijing’s "Beijing Plastic Pollution Control Action Plan (2020-2025) (Draft for Comment)" released by Beijing pointed out that by the end of this year, the proportion of "slim tape" packaging in postal express and e-commerce distribution outlets in the city will reach 90%.
By the end of 2022, the use of non-degradable plastic packaging bags, woven bags, etc., will be prohibited in postal express outlets in the city.
By the end of 2025, the city’s postal express outlets will ban the use of non-degradable plastic tape, and assign responsibilities to specific units.
This is also called "the most stringent plastic order" by netizens.
"Plastic reduction" in the e-commerce field is a systematic project that requires platforms, merchants, and consumers to work together to create a green logistics system from the production, purchase, use, and recycling of plastic packaging.
"Platform companies should be leaders in the treatment of plastic pollution." Zhang Deyuan believes that platform companies in the e-commerce, express delivery, and takeaway sectors should strengthen the management of merchants on the platform, formulate implementation plans for reducing the amount of disposable plastic products, and implement "green merchants leading "Plan" and "Green Packaging Points Campaign" to encourage and guide settled merchants to actively reduce the use of disposable plastic packaging.
The postal express industry should increase the use of green packaging and recyclable packaging.
Business operators must be the "executors" of the green consumption model.
At the same time, the research and development of alternative products will usher in new opportunities.
Zhang Deyuan suggested that express delivery companies and packaging material production and R&D companies strengthen innovation.
Currently, some companies are developing biodegradable plastic bags.
On the consumer side, a separate pricing strategy can be considered.
Zhang Deyuan said that consumers spend money and have a clear sense of use, which can indirectly enhance consumers' environmental awareness.
If plastic packaging is used, it should be sorted out to facilitate subsequent disposal and resource utilization.
In addition, Zhang Deyuan also suggested that, while enjoying the convenience brought by modern business models, consumers should continue to raise their awareness of environmental protection and minimize the use of disposable plastic utensils when ordering food and online shopping.
China Youth Daily, China Youth Daily, trainee reporter Zhao Limei and reporter Wang Congcong Source: China Youth Daily