Excessive Packaging Steals the Show — How Can We Travel Light?

Food that could fit in one takeout box is split into two boxes; a small cup of coffee is wrapped inside and out like a shoebox; a 13-yuan cup of milk tea comes with a 4-yuan packaging fee... The topic of "packaging ripoffs" has recently sparked heated discussion among many netizens. This phenomenon has drawn the attention of consumers and the media. The Shanghai Consumer Council has stated that consumers should have the right to know about and to choose packaging fees, and that food-delivery merchants should not pass on their operating costs to consumers by charging packaging fees behind the scenes.

However, beyond the inflated packaging fees, over-packaged takeout boxes also create a bigger plastic-management problem, causing pollution and waste. Only when the whole society embraces a new consumption culture of moderation, simplicity, low carbon and green civilization can over-packaged goods be "slimmed down".

Over-packaging: treat the symptoms, but even more so the root causes

The state has always attached great importance to the problem of over-packaging, and has resolutely struck hard and carried out serious rectification.

In recent years, the State Administration for Market Regulation has successively issued relevant standards and regulations to govern packaging practices. On September 2, 2021, it released the mandatory national standard "Requirements for Restricting Excessive Packaging of Commodities — Food and Cosmetics"; on August 15, 2022, it issued Amendment No. 1 to that standard, focusing on specific requirements for the packaging layers, packaging costs and mixed-packing rules of mooncakes and zongzi, with strong operability and enforceability.

Moreover, the State Administration for Market Regulation has repeatedly organized special rectification campaigns against over-packaging. Through a series of measures, it has vigorously tackled the chaos of over-packaging and made every effort to foster a green, low-carbon packaging and simple, moderate consumption environment across society, so as to promote the conservation of packaging resources and environmental protection.

Media commentator Mei Jianfei believes that over-packaging is an old topic, and that while treating the symptoms, one must above all treat the root causes. Only when the whole society embraces a new consumption culture of moderation, simplicity, low carbon and green civilization can over-packaged goods be "slimmed down". Only by truly abandoning the mentality of saving face and showing off can the layers of wrapping be stripped away — and only in this way can the loopholes of over-packaging be plugged at the source.

Xu Hongtao, the manager of a tea brand store in Beijing, also believes that over-packaging is inseparable from the social culture in the traditional Chinese mindset. "Take gift-giving," he says. "Wanting face, giving face, being grand, being meticulous — these are all reasons for the over-packaging of some goods. Changing mindsets is the key; to tackle over-packaging, we must first start with changing mindsets."

Actively responding, demonstrating corporate responsibility

Moving from extensive to intensive development of the circular economy is a major issue facing the express-packaging industry, and it requires express companies to shoulder important responsibilities. When enterprises collect old boxes, some can be used directly, and the rest can be processed centrally to save costs.

JD Logistics launched its carton-recycling program in 2016, covering JD express stations nationwide. Relying on its integrated forward-and-reverse logistics system, JD Logistics' circular-packaging business completes collection and recycling; after face-to-face delivery, couriers bring the boxes back to the station, and they are returned to the warehouse via reverse-route vehicles for reuse. To implement the "9218" project, JD Logistics vigorously promotes factory-direct packaging, introduces platform incentives to guide upstream brand companies toward green packaging transformation at the source, and adopts an integrated structural design for factory packaging and express packaging; it relies on big data and algorithms to optimize packaging reselection and sizing and to intelligently recommend consumables, improving packaging space utilization and avoiding over-packaging; it develops new packaging materials to replace traditional single-use plastics, such as paper-for-plastic and reusable express packaging bags; it carries out C-end circular-packaging sharing pilots; and it encourages couriers to collect and reuse cartons.

"In the future, JD Logistics will roll out standardized reusable boxes and a shared-recycling model, build end-of-line recycling infrastructure to solve the difficulty of collecting empty boxes, and rely on a third-party circular-packaging service platform to collect and centrally allocate resources for rapid turnover of circular packaging." So said Duan Yanjian, project leader of JD Logistics' Green Stream Initiative, in an interview with a reporter from Modern Logistics News.

During the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, China Post Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter China Post) fully launched its green initiative, carrying out the three major projects of green packaging, green transport and green finance, and six demonstration actions including green e-commerce and green buildings, continuously improving its green development system. Since the start of this year, China Post has issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for Green Postal Development", requiring the promotion of the industry's key "9218" project, the in-depth advancement of two special governance efforts on over-packaging and plastic pollution, the use of circular packaging for 100 million mail and express items nationwide, and the recovery and reuse of 80 million corrugated cartons nationwide.

Since the start of this year, the Shijiazhuang Branch of China Post Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter Shijiazhuang Post) has handled an average of 580,000 express items per day, up 9.3% year on year. The greening of express packaging has not only achieved outstanding results in environmental protection but also continued to develop in terms of reduction and recyclability, bringing both quantitative and qualitative improvements to the postal enterprise's economy.

Speaking about Shijiazhuang's implementation of circular express packaging, the head of Shijiazhuang Post told a reporter from Modern Logistics News: "In the whole of 2022, Shijiazhuang Post recovered and reused 1,062,400 corrugated cartons, equipped all 298 postal outlets (including agencies) and 36 collection-and-delivery stations across the city with express-packaging waste recycling devices, strengthened posters and advertising-video publicity at outlets, and called on 3,000 social sites to take part in carton-recycling publicity activities."

He said that in the future Shijiazhuang Post will further promote the green transformation of express packaging and transport and advance green finance and green low-carbon development. By the end of 2023, more than 75% of the city's use of degradable plastic packaging bags and plastic tape is to be achieved, and by the end of 2024 the goal of a full ban on plastics is to be realized.

A century-long undertaking: the road to green packaging has a long way to go

For enterprises collecting express cartons, the practical problem is how to achieve the reverse flow of express packaging. Express-packaging recyclables are large in number and scattered, making collection somewhat difficult; outlet-based collection is a relatively easy method. After customers pick up their express items, they casually remove the packaging, and through the publicity of outlet staff they are fairly willing to take part in carton-recycling activities. But collecting cartons after couriers deliver them, as well as collecting cartons at social sites, poses certain difficulties: for reasons of privacy or economic return, most customers and site operators are unwilling to hand express cartons directly to express companies for recycling.

In the process of greening express packaging, the choice of packaging materials is also a key link. At present, packaging materials mostly use cartons, foam plastics and the like as cushioning materials, which are characterized by low price and high resistance. Cartons as outer packaging can, by strengthening the manufacturing process and increasing costs, raise people's willingness to participate in recycling. Compared with products — especially expensive products such as ceramics, glass and electronic devices — cushioning materials like foam plastics are too cheap to use, so merchants, in order to reduce damage, usually choose to double their use of cushioning materials to increase packaging safety.

Lu Fude, associate professor at the School of Packaging and Materials Engineering of Hunan University of Technology, said: "Achieving green packaging materials is a long and arduous task. First, we need to promote and implement standardization in the packaging industry, seeking reasonable packaging methods for goods of different specifications and prices; at the same time, merchants need to take responsibility for their own products, improve product strength, and support the reduction-oriented design of express packaging. Second, scientific research remains a heavy responsibility: we must consider it systematically from multiple disciplines such as mechanics and materials science, and find a balance between the safety and greening of packaging materials."

Lu Fude also talked about degradable materials: "Whether existing degradable materials are truly pollution-free remains open to question. These materials still cause a certain amount of harm to the environment during decomposition, and decomposition also takes time. Finding a material that emits no pollution at all from production to decomposition still requires the unremitting efforts of researchers."

——This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn), original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-379366.html