Greening Push Accelerates as Express Packaging Greening and Reduction Draw Attention

During this year's "Double 11" shopping festival, as the consumer market ushers in a new round of enthusiasm, the greening and reduction of the express delivery industry have attracted increasing attention.

From the reduction and recycling of packaging to the optimization of the transportation system, with the coordinated efforts of multiple parties, the greening process of the express delivery industry is also accelerating.

Paying deposits, calculating discounts, paying the balance, opening packages... In the just-concluded "Double 11", online shopping ushered in another new round of enthusiasm.

According to the Guiding Opinions on Coordinating the Advancement of Green Packaging in the Express Delivery Industry issued by 10 departments including the State Post Bureau and the National Development and Reform Commission, the first week of November each year is "Green Express Delivery Publicity Week". In recent years, with the development of e-commerce, the greening and reduction of the express delivery industry have attracted increasing social attention. Competent authorities, postal and express delivery enterprises, consumers and other parties are working together to make express delivery greener.

Multiple parties work together to promote green and reduced express packaging

A few days ago, Ms. He from Chaoyang District, Beijing, received a call from a courier at her office saying that the fruit she bought had arrived. Ms. He asked the courier to leave the package at the door, and the courier repeatedly reminded her: "Do not throw away the insulated box. I will come to collect it in the afternoon."

The e-commerce platform Ms. He often uses has been using reusable insulated boxes for several years. "The salmon, cod and lamb chops I often buy are all packaged in this kind of insulated box. Each time after delivery, I take the items out and the courier takes the box away," Ms. He said.

This kind of reusable express insulated box is exactly an attempt by postal and express delivery enterprises to promote greener express packaging. According to industry insiders, express packaging mainly falls into 6 categories: among the main packaging, 10% are envelopes, 55% are cartons, and 34% are plastic packaging bags, plus fillers, tape and transfer bags for internal handling; there are many types and large volumes. Promoting the reduction of express packaging is an important part of advancing green packaging work.

According to the warehouse manager of a postal and express delivery enterprise, during this year's "Double 11", the enterprise used more than 50,000 recycled boxes per warehouse per day, replacing the more than 200,000 cartons and plastic packaging materials used every day in the past. Another postal and express delivery enterprise, together with an e-commerce platform, launched projects to encourage packaging recycling at 60,000 sites and to pilot old-packaging recycling for shipments at 10,000 sites, and encourages and promotes express packaging recycling through various forms.

In recent years, in order to promote the greening, reduction and recycling of express packaging, the State Post Bureau has pushed to add provisions related to express packaging governance to laws such as the E-Commerce Law, and guided delivery enterprises to strengthen scientific and technological innovation in key areas such as green packaging; it has clarified requirements related to express production and operations in the Interim Regulations on Express Delivery, the Measures for the Administration of the Express Delivery Market and the National Standards for Express Services, and issued the Reference for the Application of Recycling Bins for Mail and Express Packaging Waste, steadily advancing the recycling and reuse of packaging waste.

Through measures such as electronic waybills and reduced packaging, China's express delivery industry has made progress in its exploration of greening and reduction: in 2020, replacing traditional paper express waybills with electronic waybills was equivalent to saving 83.3 billion sheets of A4 paper; the number of corrugated paper layers in corrugated cartons was reduced from 5 to 3 or even fewer, the thickness of packaging bags was reduced from 0.06 mm to 0.03 mm, and the width of tape was reduced from 60 mm and above to 45 mm and below.

By promoting postal and express delivery enterprises to set up standards-compliant packaging waste recycling devices at postal and express outlets, reusing recycled cartons and filling materials that are intact in appearance and meet quality standards, and guiding couriers of postal and express delivery enterprises to collect packages at doorsteps and delivery stations, the State Post Bureau is exploring the construction of a "reverse logistics" model for mail and express packaging recycling. As of now, the entire industry has put 3.8 million reusable express boxes (containers) into use, effectively reducing the consumption of cartons, packaging bags and fillers.

The Measures for the Administration of Mail and Express Packaging, which took effect on March 12, clarified the requirements and principles for packaging selection, and stipulated that delivery enterprises should strictly implement the packaging management system, give priority to reusable and easily recyclable packaging, and reduce the use of packaging. The Measures require delivery enterprises to conduct packaging operations reasonably, not to wrap excessive tape, and to minimize packaging layers, void space and fillers. In addition, delivery enterprises are encouraged to establish sound working mechanisms and recycling processes to recycle and reuse packaging.

Current green express packaging practices also face difficulties

At present, the management of express packaging is being continuously improved, but its green practice still faces some difficulties.

"I sent my luggage from Guangzhou to Beijing, and I could not bear to watch the courier wrapping tape around the box circle after circle. It was just too wasteful!" Mr. Liu from Beijing said helplessly: "I said do not wrap so much, and if it breaks, it is on me. The courier said no, they have their standards and must ensure safety." The reporter visited a number of postal and express delivery enterprises, and many couriers said that their main job at present is still to deliver express items safely to customers, and sometimes they do not give too much thought to saving packaging materials.

Consumers have the awareness of recycling and reduction, yet lack practical channels; postal and express delivery enterprises make relevant attempts, yet inevitably have to consider issues such as delivery safety and increased costs.

During the interviews, some couriers also told the reporter that they reduce the use of packaging materials according to specific circumstances at work, adopting sealing methods such as the "straight" and "cross" patterns according to box size in line with relevant regulations, and wrapping as little tape as possible when items are not heavy and the packaging is not prone to leakage; based on the specific conditions of items, they use less or no fillers. They also ask customers during delivery whether they are willing to have boxes recycled, and keep some boxes that are basically in good condition.

Reducing and greening express packaging, exploration in technology has also been advancing. An industry insider engaged in express packaging design told the reporter that, taking corrugated cartons as an example, many cartons are covered with an additional layer of plastic film during production for the sake of appearance or waterproofing, but this also makes the cartons difficult to recycle. "Many agricultural products, such as fruit, evaporate moisture during transportation, or are prone to absorbing moisture when placed in cold storage. Without film, the carton tends to collapse and cannot protect the goods. At present, some institutions are also exploring new processes in order to move away from film-covering technology."

"Whether packaging materials or filling materials, the cost of biodegradable materials is several times that of ordinary materials, so they can only be used on products with high added value," the industry insider said.

As for reusable packaging, a relevant person in charge of a postal and express delivery enterprise introduced that, in terms of reusable express boxes, the packaging cost mainly consists of two parts. First, the material cost of the packaging box; generally, to ensure that the packaging can be recycled many times, the cost of purchasing plastic boxes is 15-20 times that of cartons of the same specification, and the service life of the box is 30-40 times. The main reason the cost of recycling operations is relatively high is that in express delivery scenarios, a recycling management system needs to be put into use in the early stage, and costs such as packaging recycling allocation, cleaning and maintenance are also required during operation. On the whole, compared with cartons, reusable packaging currently has no obvious cost advantage.

According to a relevant person in charge of the State Post Bureau, green governance of express packaging faces three problems:

First, the system of laws, regulations and standards still needs to be improved. Express packaging involves many parties, including packaging manufacturers, packaging sellers, commodity manufacturers, senders (e-commerce operators and ordinary users), postal and express delivery enterprises, recipients, community property management, scrap recycling enterprises, and waste treatment institutions. Current laws, regulations and standards mainly target postal and express delivery enterprises, and lack effective constraints on other parties, which restricts the effectiveness of governance.

Second, upstream and downstream coordination needs to be strengthened. Packages from upstream e-commerce operators account for more than 70% of express delivery business volume. Through the guidance of upstream users by postal and express delivery enterprises, currently 76% of e-commerce express items are no longer repackaged during the delivery process. Therefore, promoting upstream industries such as e-commerce to implement green packaging requirements has become the key to express packaging governance.

Third, green supply is insufficient. At present, the industry's green supply is relatively insufficient, and green products, technologies and models that focus on the industry's actual needs are lacking. The promotion cost of biodegradable packaging under natural conditions is relatively high, the application model of reusable packaging urgently needs innovation, and the replacement cost remains high. According to statistics, if the entire industry fully used biodegradable plastic packaging bags and environmentally friendly tape to replace the ordinary plastic packaging bags and ordinary plastic tape currently used, based on the 2020 business volume, the entire industry would incur an additional 18.79 billion yuan in costs, accounting for about 2.1% of the business revenue of national express service enterprises.

Green express delivery is everyone's responsibility

In order to call on consumers to participate in express packaging recycling, a postal and express delivery enterprise, together with an e-commerce platform, newly installed 13,000 green recycling bins, and during this year's "Double 11" it also prepared 500,000 fresh eggs every day to give to consumers who participated in express box recycling.

It is worth noting that usage habits also affect the promotion and application of environmentally friendly express packaging.

An industry insider said: "Express delivery is a complete system. At this stage, some recyclable and degradable packaging materials may be slightly inferior in physical properties such as compression resistance, so how to adapt to these materials is a big test for the entire system."

The Measures for the Administration of Mail and Express Packaging comprehensively stipulate the obligations of delivery enterprises in terms of packaging selection, sealing operations, and packaging recycling and reuse. However, delivery enterprises mostly cannot fulfill their corresponding obligations without the cooperation of users. For example, users should not make unreasonable requests such as excessive tape wrapping in response to packaging operations carried out by couriers in accordance with regulations; if self-provided packaging does not meet regulations and the courier requests a replacement or replacement on their behalf, users must not refuse or obstruct; and for reusable packaging put into use by delivery enterprises, recipients should return the reusable packaging to the courier after taking out the contents.

According to a relevant person in charge of the State Post Bureau, in the next step, the State Post Bureau will fully implement the provisions of laws such as the Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste and the E-Commerce Law, comprehensively advance the green governance of express packaging, improve the system of laws, regulations, standards and policies, and continue to promote the greening, reduction and recycling of express packaging.

The State Post Bureau calls on users to actively participate in and earnestly cooperate with the relevant work of postal management departments and delivery enterprises, and to jointly contribute to building green express delivery and building a beautiful China.

——This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-378666.html