From Circular Packaging to Packaging Circularity: How Box Sharing Is Breaking the Single-Use Logistics Packaging Deadlock

The circular economy is the only way and a key move for the transformation and upgrading of the packaging industry, while the packaging industry is a key link in building a green supply chain and an important vehicle for the green transformation and upgrading of industries.

According to the latest data from Frost & Sullivan, the global circular packaging industry reached USD 100.1 billion in 2021, and China's logistics packaging market was about 760 billion yuan, of which more than 90% was single-use logistics packaging. Along with China's upgrading from manufacturing to intelligent manufacturing, and driven by the shift from supply-driven demand to manufacturing ESG demand, green packaging zero-carbon circular service models based on digital technology innovation are redefining industry rules and the industrial value chain, and are ushering in historic development opportunities.

"China is the manufacturing center with the largest industrial scale, the most complete industrial categories and the most complete industrial system in the world. Building a large-scale industrial packaging circulation system for the manufacturing industry cannot be achieved without the support of a standardized, digital, networked and platform-based industry, nor without the construction of advanced circular packaging capacity, the building of circular operation networks, the deployment of packaging asset pools, and the full range of supporting logistics, warehousing, IoT and digitalization." Liao Qingxin, founder and CEO of Xiangxiang Gongyong, said in an interview that if the whole society's industrial logistics packaging in China were converted from single-use to circular and shared, at least 5 trillion yuan of new investment would be needed. Thanks to the superposition of "dual carbon" and ESG, China's industrial packaging is accelerating its transition toward recyclability. At the same time, policy support is also giving rise to a trillion-yuan-scale packaging circular service market.

Xiangxiang Gongyong: breaking the dilemma of single-use logistics packaging with smart packaging technology and circular services

Founded in 2013, Xiangxiang Gongyong is a platform-based technology enterprise that provides smart packaging technology and circular services to the global industrial manufacturing sector, mainly offering packaging circulation and sharing solutions for bulk liquids, fresh food cold chain, chemicals, new energy vehicles, postal and express delivery and other boundary-free industries.

Today, based on its comprehensive R&D capabilities in logistics packaging across all industries, IoT and circular management, as well as innovative technologies such as 5G, big data and AI-assisted decision-making, the company has built a nationwide intelligent, grid-based operation network, forming an integrated green supply chain solution of "packaging + services + data".

Liao Qingxin, founder and CEO of Xiangxiang Gongyong, told 36Kr that Xiangxiang Gongyong adopts a mindset geared toward the future development of industrial cities, mainly to build whole-industry-chain advantages in the field of industrial circular packaging. Especially in some segmented fields, such as liquid packaging for non-chemicals, food and beverages, and daily chemicals, and transport packaging for automotive and home appliance parts, Xiangxiang Gongyong has whole-industry-chain advantages in technology R&D, patent layout, advanced manufacturing and operation management capabilities.

In terms of industrial packaging products, Xiangxiang Gongyong has launched reusable packaging product solutions in different sizes and with different functions based on product transportation needs in different scenarios. At present, they can mainly be divided into three major scenarios: bulk liquids, auto parts and home appliance components, and fresh food cold chain.

For example, Xiangxiang Gongyong innovatively launched a bulk liquid circular service solution - the Blue-Green Dual Circulation, providing liquid industry users with two service options: Blue Circulation and Green Circulation. Targeting the pain points of the non-hazardous chemicals industry such as polyurethane, acrylic emulsion, epoxy resin, lubricating oil and ink, Xiangxiang Gongyong has launched its safe and eco-friendly Blue Circulation service by combining plastic foldable "bag-in-box" technology. It features technological innovations such as four-fold leak protection, ball valve bottom discharge, anti-crystallization, anti-solidification and anti-stratification, as well as multiple advantages including compatibility with automatic filling lines and container water-rail intermodal transport.

Targeting the pain points of the food and daily chemicals industries such as fruit juice and jam, dairy products, seasonings, edible oil, syrup and cosmetics, Xiangxiang Gongyong has launched its clean and hygienic Green Circulation service. The container not only has an extra-large capacity of about 1,250 liters, but also offers multiple advantages such as FDA plastic material and a double-smooth-wall structure. It is compatible with a zero-residue extruding pusher and a high-temperature sterilizable discharge valve, solving the troubles of traditional single-use packaging such as being prone to moisture, corrosion and mildew, large discharge residue, and inconvenient operation and maintenance, high cost and high waste.

In terms of digital platform services, Xiangxiang Gongyong has launched the container-using service PaaS platform and the container-managing service SaaS platform.

The container-using PaaS (Packaging as a Service) service deeply integrates digital technology with its circular packaging service network, providing upstream and downstream supply chain enterprises with standardized smart logistics packaging usage services under a new "packaging as a service" model. Users can obtain container-using services through various convenient channels such as the container-using platform, mobile devices and WeChat service accounts.

The container-managing SaaS service is mainly based on IoT, algorithm and big data technologies to help asset managers fully understand asset operation status and effectively control the three cores of asset management, early-warning monitoring and efficiency optimization center. Users can perceive in real time data including logistics packaging location, circulation trajectory, current status (in transit or in warehouse, empty or full, lost, idle, etc.), network point inbound and outbound and inventory, temperature and other customized sensor data, achieving full life-cycle management of logistics packaging from production to recycling and covering the entire chain of scenarios such as logistics packaging requisition, loading, warehousing, outbound, in transit, transshipment, unloading, cleaning and maintenance.

Based on this, Xiangxiang Gongyong provides users with full life-cycle carbon management services such as circular packaging carbon footprint and carbon emission reduction accounting. It shares product carbon footprint life cycle assessment and circular service carbon emission reduction data with customers, effectively addressing the capability to collect logistics packaging carbon footprint and carbon accounting data.

It is reported that the operating service network of Xiangxiang Gongyong has basically covered most regions of the country, deploying 30 central warehouses, 2,500 upstream and downstream network points and 2 million sets of smart circular packaging assets around core industrial economic belts.

How can industrial circular packaging help industrial transformation and upgrading? The founder and CEO of Xiangxiang Gongyong shared his views

To return to this question, one point must first be clarified: going from circular packaging to packaging circulation is not simply a matter of achieving single-use replacement, but a focal point for improving supply chain efficiency in the new development cycle.

Packaging is one of the few tools that can accompany a product throughout its entire life cycle, connecting production on one side and consumption on the other. Companies represented by Xiangxiang Gongyong represent three concepts: standardization, circularity and sharing, which form a progressive relationship.

Zuo Xinyu, Secretary-General of the Logistics Equipment Professional Committee of the China Federation of Logistics & Purchasing, summarized the key role of circular packaging as follows: a typical efficiency tool, a carbon reduction tool, a digitalization tool, an automation tool and a cost tool.

What Xiangxiang Gongyong is doing is to integrate and apply massive, fragmented packaging information through iterative technology upgrades, the application of digital technology and integrated innovation of software and hardware, blazing a replicable and scalable business model for the circular development and green transformation of the packaging industry.

At the 2023 Zero-Carbon Circular Industry Innovation Forum themed "Green New Momentum, New ESG Track" held on June 11, Liao Qingxin, founder and CEO of Xiangxiang Gongyong, shared his views based on more than ten years of industry practice.

Liao Qingxin believes that the first point is that the industrial foundation must be made "heavy".

Today, users' expectations for circular packaging have upgraded from "circular packaging" to "packaging circulation". This requires the circular packaging industry to accelerate its pace of development, transforming and upgrading from manufacturing in the secondary industry to a producer service industry in the tertiary industry.

To achieve this, two tasks need to be done well: first, create dedicated solutions around the industry; second, promote the construction of a circular service network for circular packaging.

The second point is that the business model must be made "light".

The circular economy is a big proposition that requires the joint participation of industry and capital.

Zhongguancun Science and Technology Leasing, which led this Series D financing round of Xiangxiang Gongyong, is a listed platform under Zhongguancun Development Group. He Rongfeng, Executive Director and General Manager of Zhongguancun Science and Technology Leasing and Director of Zhongnuo Fund, explained the reasons for investing in Xiangxiang Gongyong.

He mentioned that the development of the industry cannot do without financial support. A single technological innovation is not enough to raise the overall level of the industry; only through the organic combination of technological innovation and financial innovation, with professional R&D enterprises and professional financial capital resonating at the same frequency, can multi-scenario solutions be formed. The cooperation between Zhongguancun Science and Technology Leasing and Xiangxiang Gongyong is both an exploratory practice of using financial innovation to drive change in the circular packaging industry and an active exploration of industry-finance integration in support of zero-carbon circulation.

The third point is that green going global must be made "strong".

The green track not only provides a new entrepreneurial opportunity for technology-innovative enterprises, but is also an important opportunity for domestic industries to go global and build global influence.

Because they are on the same starting line, Chinese companies can rebuild systems through patents, standards, advanced processes and digital technologies, thereby achieving "lane-changing overtaking". New energy vehicles are the best case in point.

On the green track, domestic enterprises are fully capable of becoming makers and leaders of technology and market rules, rather than merely "followers".

——This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-379402.html