Tens of billions of courier packaging recycling rate is less than two percent

[China Packaging Network News] In August this year, the State Post Bureau issued the "Promoting the implementation of green packaging industry delivery program." The "Double 11" just passed was the first major examination of the express delivery industry after the introduction of the plan. Although some measures have been taken, the status of courier overpacking has not been fundamentally alleviated. With the days of online shopping blowouts, express delivery packages are putting an unbearable burden on the environment.

At present, the phenomenon of excessive express packaging, low recycling rate, etc. is widespread, which places a heavy burden on the environment. To promote the greenization of courier packaging, from the national level to related companies have begun to act, to take measures such as the development of biodegradable materials, and promote the recycling of packaging. However, the bottleneck of packaging standards, the difficulty of recycling, and the lack of environmental awareness are still three major bottlenecks. The green packaging breaks, and the government, business, and consumers need to form a strong joint force.

A bag of 1300 ml of laundry liquid, including two air bubble bags, two rounds of tape, and a bubble pillow, are placed in the carton, and four rounds of tape are wound on the carton for the shape of a well. This is a packaging scene that reporters recently saw at a express warehouse in Ningbo, Zhejiang.

In August this year, the State Post Bureau issued the "Implementation Plan for Promoting Green Packaging in the Express Industry." The "Double 11" just passed was the first major examination of the express delivery industry after the introduction of the plan. Although some measures have been taken, the status of courier overpacking has not been fundamentally alleviated. With the days of online shopping blowouts, express delivery packages are putting an unbearable burden on the environment.

Courier packaging, tie up, two boxes of cosmetics to be wrapped around five or six layers of tape

Li Minfeng, who lives in Xiacheng District of Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, received five express delivery shipments in the past two days. The volume of the unpacked bags and boxes was two or three times that of the purchased items. Li Minfeng said, "The tape is much more entangled, the foam is placed more, and the tea set is not bumped. This must be praised!"

Chen Hong is doing a Korean cosmetics purchasing business in Hangzhou. Into her work point, a large number of tapes, boxes and inflatable bags were placed in the warehouse. I saw her first put a layer of foam paper in the courier box, and wrapped two layers of cosmetics in an inflatable bag and wrapped it with a layer of tape. Afterwards, a layer of foam paper was placed in the box, and then the newspaper was rolled into a ball. Fill up the gaps and finally wrap it around with tape five times. “Express courier often throws the courier to drop the delivery, in the packaging, we must be willing to spend money.” Chen Hong said.

On the 12th, the State Post Bureau released data that this year's "Double 11" major e-commerce companies' express orders reached 350 million, an increase of 59% year-on-year. According to previous forecasts, China will produce 30 billion express parcels in 2016 and 50 billion parcels by 2018. At the same time, the recovery of express packages is not optimistic.

"The courier box is left with too much space, and most of them are thrown away as garbage." Li Minfeng said that everyone in the community is basically doing this. According to statistics, China's current express carton recycling rate of less than 20%, including transparent tape, air bags, plastic bags, including packaging, most of them were sent to the garbage dump, the main raw material for these packaging is polyvinyl chloride, It takes a hundred years to degrade; if it is burned, it will produce a lot of pollutants.

Environmentally-friendly packaging has become the new darling of the industry, and slight reductions can save a lot of consumables

Faced with such a huge amount of waste and pollution, industry insiders call for: Pay attention to the green packaging industry.

From the national level to related companies, it has indeed begun to seek change.

The relevant person in charge of the Market Supervision Department of the State Post Bureau stated that “green postal service” has been included in the top ten key tasks in 2016. “Green Packaging will be promoted in three aspects: First, it will improve the law and regulations system for express delivery industry packaging, such as promoting express delivery. Packaging is included in the compulsory recycling catalog of the “Circular Economy Promotion Law.” Second is the revision of national standards and industry standards for express delivery packaging.The third is to strengthen the daily supervision of express delivery packaging, promote the introduction of express green packaging environmental protection identification and management methods, explore Green packaging and other environmental protection indicators into the industry credit system construction content. "It is understood that the State Post Bureau has now formed a "courier green packaging application pilot program", is widely soliciting the views of express delivery companies.

To promote green packaging, the role of the enterprise is indispensable. According to Zhao Guojun, director of the Post Development Research Center of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, promoting green packaging is of great significance. First, it will benefit the improvement of the ecological environment. Second, it will bring about the improvement of the quality of production services and the upgrading of user experience.

He walked into a company in Ningbo called Jifeng Environmental Protection Technology. The person in charge, Huang Jiren, showed reporters the new express fill materials they developed. "This filler is made from corn starch and is naturally decomposed into soil or pots to become 'liquid fertilizer'." Huang Jiren introduced that this new fully degradable packaging material costs only plastic foam fillers. About half of it. At present, this technology has entered into the market in cooperation with "rookie logistics".

The person in charge of a number of express delivery companies in Yiwu told reporters that the local express delivery company's use of electronic waybills has reached 80% - 90%.

JYD Group packaging manager Duan Yanjian said that Jingdong has invested in the development and testing of all degradable materials, using PBAT and PLA materials, and can be completely decomposed into carbon dioxide and water within 3 to 6 months under composting conditions.

“We are trying to introduce a reusable safe plastic material environmental protection box. After the buyer signs the goods, the courier will take the box back to the delivery warehouse according to the link process, and gradually replace the express cartons.” Alibaba Network “Green Action” Plan Xu Junhua, the person in charge, said that he will strive to replace 50% of the packaging materials by 2020. The fillers are 100% biodegradable green packaging materials.

Green packaging will not significantly increase the cost of the company? Zhao Guojun believes that the cost of the promotion of early-stage companies will be more, but in the long run, environmental protection materials can make full use of transport space, reduce transport losses, so that postal courier companies reduce costs, in the future It is very likely that the cost of environmental protection materials is lower than that of non-environmental materials. However, in order to alleviate short-term pressure, some targeted measures are still needed. For example, if the most commonly used type of courier bag uses a full biodegradable courier bag, each unit price will increase by at least 0.5 yuan. "Need merchants, courier companies and e-commerce platform to share the cost of multi-party." Xu Junhua suggested that the use of biodegradable courier bags can be marked with a green mark, inciting businesses to take the lead in the use of degradation courier bags to cultivate consumer habits.

Still need to solve the bottleneck of the packaging standard lag, recovery cycle is difficult

Although "green packaging" can achieve multi-win-win situation, it is difficult to implement in actual promotion. According to statistics, 55.6% of consumers discarded the package after they received the shipment. The lag in express delivery packaging standards, the difficulty in recovery cycles, and the lack of awareness of environmental protection are the three bottlenecks that impede the greenization of express packaging.

For the packaging standard, Zhu Lei, vice president of the Qingdao Institute of Beijing Institute of Graphic Arts, said that the current standards are mostly recommended indicators, and their binding power is not strong and implementation is difficult. Take the biodegradable courier bag as an example. Xu Junhua said, "Technology is very mature, but the lack of standards at the national level has caused difficulties in promotion."

Constrained by time and efficiency, the express company's intention to actively reclaim packaging is not strong. "The courier dispatches at least 200 individual deliveries per day. Recycling the packages at the door will reduce the efficiency. The courier vehicles have limited transport capacity. If they are all used for recyclable packaging, how can the space be stored for courier delivery?" Yuantong Beijing Branch Security Supervision Department Manager Ma Xuehong is very helpless. Moreover, many courier packages use tape too much and consumers can only break and unpack, and the value of the packaging recycling cycle is lost.

The reason why the express delivery is "big five tie" is still afraid of being damaged during transportation. Reducing excessive packaging and improving the overall technical level of the express delivery industry are also important. The Implementation Plan for Promoting the Green Packaging Industry in the Express Industry proposes to increase unnecessary training and regulate operation procedures to avoid unnecessary over-packaging.

Green packaging is also inseparable from consumer support and social environmental protection concepts. "Usually, there are a lot of express delivery, and many of my packaging are thrown directly. If there is a recycling channel, I would like to contribute to environmental protection," said Ms. Beijing Minfu. Beijing Nangbao Logistics Service Center Nongda Store has a dedicated parcel dismantling platform and parcel recycling bin. Although there are one or two hundred cartons recycled and reused daily, the recovery rate is still relatively low compared to the huge parcel volume. "It still depends on everyone's awareness of environmental protection. There is no concept of environmental protection, and more recycling platforms are also furnishings." Deng Qingyuan, deputy general manager of Neighbor Po said.

“Green packaging is no longer just an industry issue. It is a comprehensive social issue. To solve these problems, the postal administration department and the postal express delivery company are incumbent, and they also need the participation of all parties in the society, extensive support, and a strong synergy.” State Post Bureau The relevant person in charge of the Market Supervision Department believes.