What Does Packaging "Slimming Down" and "Lightening Up" Bring?

1. Takeout packaging "slims down," letting the right packaging "carry" the right food

"No more tearing plastic wrap by hand!" Since the semester began, Jiao Ke, a student at a university in Beijing, and his roommates have found that the takeout they usually order has changed dramatically in its packaging!

"In the past, the plastic wrap was wound three times one way and three times the other—you'd be left doubting life itself before you got it open! Now the packaging is clean and neat; just lift the lid and enjoy the food," he said outright.

For some time, excessive packaging with "big boxes for small meals and layer upon layer added" has become the "standard" for takeout—what looks like an ordinary meal comes in several boxes and bags of various sizes, plus disposable tableware, sauce cups and more, with packaging consumables far exceeding expectations.

The emergence of this phenomenon is not unrelated to the way packaging affects the dining experience. A survey by an e-commerce platform shows that more than 50% of consumers believe packaging problems affect their dining experience, and nearly 90% say they will return to merchants whose takeout packaging offers a good experience.

1. Unwrapping deliveries is no longer "peeling an onion": packaging reduction now has "hard rules"

A palm-sized phone nested layer upon layer in a carton the size of a shoebox; packaging boxes filled with large amounts of bubble bags and foamed plastic that give off an overpowering smell... Similar to excessive takeout packaging, excessive express packaging is also widely criticized by consumers. Many consumers complain that after receiving a delivery they have to peel it open layer by layer like "peeling an onion," leaving a small mountain of garbage...

Starting July 1 this year, China's first mandatory national standard targeting excessive express packaging—the "Requirements for Limiting Excessive Express Packaging"—officially took effect, giving express packaging reduction "hard rules."

However, when exactly does express packaging count as "excessive"? Ding Hong, vice president of the Jiangsu Provincial Urban Economics Society and a professor at Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, explained that the new regulation sets three core indicators—box fit, number of packaging layers and sealing tape—with three tiers of limit requirements for each, to determine whether express packaging is excessive.

Take sealing tape as an example: when the sum of the length, width and height of an express box is within 700 mm, the amount of sealing tape used should not exceed three times that sum; when the value is between 700 mm and 1000 mm, the amount used should not exceed four times that sum...

At an express delivery station in Langfang, Hebei, the reporter saw that the packing process no longer trusses cartons up like a prisoner; narrow-width eco-friendly tape has been adopted uniformly, and the old habit of wrapping layer after layer has vanished.

Small parcels are sealed with a tape strip in a "一" (single line) shape, medium parcels in a "十" (cross) shape, and large parcels in a "井" (grid) shape—no need for layer upon layer of wrapping... Zhao Wei, the station manager who is training the couriers, told the reporter that they have uniformly trained staff in standardized packing methods: which goods go in which boxes, how many layers of packaging at most, and how the tape should be applied all have clear standards.

1. Making green within easy reach requires joint efforts across the whole chain

Big issues of people's livelihood hide inside small express parcels.

In 2025, China's express delivery volume reached 199 billion pieces, ranking first in the world for 12 consecutive years. That means every person in the country receives an average of 142 express deliveries a year; every second 6310 parcels and every day 545 million parcels are moving across the land of China.

Liu Jianguo, a professor at Tsinghua University's School of Environment, said that behind the huge scale and rapid growth of the express delivery business, the massive use and disposal of packaging cannot be avoided. In recent years, by issuing regulations and standards for express packaging, establishing a green express packaging product certification system, and carrying out pilot programs for the large-scale application of recyclable express packaging, China has progressively implemented a systematic express packaging governance project based on the basic approach of "prohibit, limit, reduce, recycle, and lower," achieving good results in promoting the green transformation of express packaging.