Express and e-commerce industry focus on green packaging
The volume of express delivery has soared, and packaging waste has also increased simultaneously, “forcing” companies to take action.
According to the “13th Five-Year Plan” development indicators of the express delivery industry, China’s express delivery volume will reach 70 billion pieces in 2020, and the per capita express delivery will increase from 0.01 pieces in 2000 to about 50 pieces in 2020. In order to prevent the package from being damaged during transportation, the package must be packaged as necessary. Therefore, with the rapid increase in the number of express delivery, a large amount of express packaging waste has also been generated, which has caused widespread violence in all sectors of society.
Corrugated cartons are the most important express packaging materials, of which medium and small-size cartons account for the largest proportion, 34.9% and 47.49% respectively. The average quality of corrugated box express packaging is 329g, including 304g corrugated paper, 16.8g filled film plastic, 2.7g plastic tape, 4.5g shipping note paper, and 0.22g of tape core waste (the above data has been weighted according to material specifications).
Research shows that the consumption of various express packaging materials in my country has increased from 20,600 tons in 2000 to 9,412,300 tons in 2018. If effective measures are not implemented to control, according to the current development trend of the express industry, the consumption of express packaging materials in my country will reach 41,270,500 tons in 2025, which will bring a huge resource burden and environmental pressure.
Paper packaging materials are mainly corrugated paper, accounting for 96.18%. Other paper materials include waybills and document bag envelopes, and indirect packaging materials tape cores, accounting for 3.82% in total. In 2018, the corrugated paper consumption in my country’s express delivery industry reached 8.233 million tons, and the express waybill was 187,100 tons. Among them, express waybill is divided into electronic waybill and traditional waybill. Traditional waybills generally have quadruples and weigh about 7.5g. The weight of the electronic waybill is about 32% of the traditional waybill. In 2018, the utilization rate of electronic waybills in my country was about 70%, and that of traditional waybills was 30%. If the utilization rate of electronic waybills is increased to 90%, 50,000 tons of paper for waybills will be saved.
At present, domestic standards for express goods and corresponding packaging specifications have not yet been issued. Many sellers tend to use relatively large cartons or express bags for goods packaging, and add too much filler materials, such as bubble bags, bubble columns, etc., to the packages. These filling materials are difficult to recycle and have low value.
Whether it is residential communities, campuses or business districts, the current main force for recycling is still elderly residents, cleaners and mobile scavengers. The garbage in colleges and commercial areas is screened by cleaning staff once or twice a day, and community garbage may be picked up by residents or scavengers before and after the cleaning staff. However, interviewees also said that if the corrugated cartons are filled with domestic garbage, they will be contaminated by oily water stains, and the heavily polluted cartons are usually not recycled.
In addition, a visit in Shanghai found that since the implementation of the “Regulations of Shanghai Municipality on the Management of Domestic Waste”, mobile recyclers have been unable to see the scattered recyclable express packaging (the “Regulations” will include corrugated boxes and other paper express packaging and foam boxes). Classified as recyclable).
The survey found that less than 5% of express carton packaging waste is reused, about 80% of the cartons are recycled by weight, and about 15% are mixed with household garbage.
Taking 2018 as an example, my country’s express delivery industry consumed a total of 8.373 million tons of paper packaging materials (excluding express note paper), of which 119,300 tons of paper bag paper, and 8.254 million tons of corrugated paper such as corrugated boxes, paper tubes and tape cores Ton. Among them, only about 340,800 tons of corrugated boxes were reused, and about 6.889 million tons of express packaging waste paper (6.7943 million tons of corrugated paper and 94,600 tons of document bags) were recovered through mobile recycling companies.
In 2010, express packaging generated 611,500 tons of carbon emissions, which surged to 13,031,000 tons in 2018, and 710 million trees had to be planted to neutralize it. If an effective green policy is not adopted, the carbon emissions of my country’s express packaging throughout the life cycle will reach 57,061,000 tons in 2025. It can be seen that in the face of the rapid increase in express packaging carbon emissions, it is very urgent for e-commerce platforms and express companies to formulate and implement green management of express packaging.