Targeted Push for Green Development of Food Delivery Packaging

In recent years, with economic and social development, rising consumer awareness and policy support, food-delivery packaging has shown a trend of diversification, personalization and greening. Recently, the "Green Packaging Solutions for Food Delivery" (Phase I) (hereinafter the "Solutions") was released. The "Solutions" presents the phased results of "providing recyclable, degradable or reusable solutions for food-delivery packaging for all merchants", and provides upgrading guidance for green packaging in six major dish categories: cakes, chilled desserts, coffee, light meals, dumplings and congee.

The Food Delivery Green Packaging Application Working Group collected feedback on food-delivery packaging from 1,678 merchants and 524 consumers through an online questionnaire survey. The results showed that "good packaging performance" and "green and eco-friendly" became the two dimensions consumers cared about most. In food-delivery scenarios, good food-delivery packaging is an important foundation for ensuring consumers' dining experience and can help merchants increase repurchase rates.

The survey shows that more than half of consumers believe packaging problems affect the dining experience, and 88% of consumers said they would repurchase from merchants with a good food-delivery packaging experience. Talking about this topic, food-delivery user Xiaobei recounted an experience: he once ordered takeout from a well-known brand restaurant, but when it arrived half the soup had spilled, making a mess everywhere and seriously ruining his mood for the meal. Faced with this situation, he felt that neither giving the delivery rider a bad review nor seeking compensation from the merchant was quite reasonable, and that food-delivery packaging should have a better solution.

Prone to spilling, prone to damage and poor heat retention have always been pain points urgently in need of solution for food-delivery packaging. Many merchants choose to solve the problem with cling film, staples and the like, but what follows is that the takeout container is wrapped in thick layers of cling film "that seem never to end", or consumers are often scratched by the layers of staples on the delivery bag. Industry insiders point out that to help consumers better improve the dining experience and help merchants solve packaging pain points, effective green packaging solutions must be provided.

Why provide green packaging guidance by category? The "Solutions" proposes that different categories, due to their differing dish characteristics, have different packaging concerns. For example, congee has a higher optimal eating temperature and thus higher requirements for the heat resistance and thermal insulation of packaging; dishes containing soup and water pay more attention to the sealing of packaging. Therefore, category-specific green packaging guidance can help merchants find solutions that better match the actual application needs of their own category.

Is green packaging more costly? The "Solutions" analyzes that good packaging must be suitable packaging. Green packaging solutions are not "only about environmental protection"; they require comprehensive consideration of four dimensions — performance, appearance, price and environmental protection — and merchants can appropriately balance them according to their own needs.

The "Solutions" holds that environmental protection is also not out of reach. As long as merchants are willing to promote green and eco-friendly practices, improving professional knowledge and scientifically using green packaging do not always require large investment. For example, if merchants replace the black plastic polypropylene takeout containers they originally used with containers of the same type in a natural color or transparent, they can improve the packaging's ease of recycling and regeneration.

Wang Qi, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and chairman of the Expert Committee of the Food Delivery Green Packaging Application Working Group, said that the sustainable development of the food-delivery industry requires implementing the concept of green development and promoting the green development of packaging materials across the entire chain, from design, synthesis, processing and application to waste disposal. Wang Qi hopes the working group will summarize the experience of outstanding projects, actively broaden its thinking, coordinate resources from all sides, recommend environment-friendly green food-delivery packaging solutions to food-delivery merchants, provide support for building a green supply chain for the food-delivery industry, and promote the green and low-carbon development of China's packaging industry.

Wang Li, vice president of the China Packaging Federation and deputy chairman of the Expert Committee of the Food Delivery Green Packaging Application Working Group, said that the development of the food-delivery packaging industry requires overall consideration of the entire industry chain, and the fundamental goal is to achieve source reduction. The "Solutions" continuously explores the carbon-reduction path of the food-delivery packaging industry, conducts research on subdivided fields and application scenarios, seeks new solutions for food-delivery packaging from the full life cycle and the whole industry chain, and keeps promoting the sustainable development of the food-delivery packaging industry.

Zhang Lijun, vice president of the China General Chamber of Commerce, believes that the greening of delivery packaging has become a core issue in the green development of the food-delivery industry and is crucial to the green development of the entire catering industry. Zhang Lijun hopes catering enterprises can participate deeply in research on green packaging solutions for food delivery, closely combine green packaging with the characteristics of catering, and make green packaging more applicable to a wide variety of dishes and application scenarios. Through catering enterprises practicing the solutions and strengthening publicity and guidance, more consumers will pay attention to the green development of the food-delivery industry, participate in green consumption, promote the establishment of a green supply chain for food delivery, and lay the foundation for the green development transformation of China's food-delivery industry.

Weng Yunxuan, secretary-general of the Degradable Plastics Professional Committee of the China Plastics Processing Industry Association, said that no matter how materials develop in the future, every material has its advantages and shortcomings. When choosing packaging materials for food-delivery products, a comprehensive consideration should be made based on factors such as the characteristics of the contents, the intended user, the transport environment, cost and the way waste is disposed of, so as to choose different types of products and make the best use of them.

Han Xueshan, vice president and executive secretary-general of the China Packaging Federation, believes that it is necessary to devote effort to studying solutions for food-delivery packaging. The focus should be on two aspects: first, environmental protection — exploring packaging solutions that are reduced, degradable and easy to recycle; second, performance — while ensuring the basic requirements of environmental protection, studying packaging solutions that can better guarantee the quality of delivery.

——This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn), original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-379354.html