Massive Garbage Been Left after the Express Carnival, Expected to Reduce It from the Source

AIShred 2017-09-28

It is said the coin had two sides. With the rise of online shopping, the express delivery industry has been growing rapidly; and the huge amount of express garbage is becoming a problem. How to reduce the express garbage? How to recycle the garbage properly? How to explore green express? All these questions are worth our thinking.

Confucius said it is a delight to have friends coming from afar. In the rapid development of e-commerce, online shopping has become a mainstream mode of consumption, accompanied by the rapid growth of the express industry. Therefore, for shopaholic, people joked that it is happy to have express delivery coming from afar.

Shopping - Packaging - sorting - express delivery – unpacking, when consumers enjoying the pleasure, sellers getting generous profits and the express economy climbing, the growing package of express delivery has brought an incalculable burden on the environment, Polluting the quality of soil, water and air.

Express garbage presents the potential of city besieged

According to authoritative media reports, China's express delivery business has been the world's largest for three consecutive years, accounting for more than 40% of the world's total. With the rise of e-commerce platform, express delivery business is still growing rapidly. On September 13th, China E-commerce Research Center released the Data Monitoring Report of Chinn’s Online Retail Market (hereinafter referred to as "the report") for the first half of 2017. According to the report, China's online retail sales volume reached 3.1 trillion Yuan in the first half of 2017, up 34.8% compared with 2.3 trillion Yuan in the first half of 2016.

From this report, we saw the half year shopping records for shopaholics and the contribution of express business to economic growth; but more we should see the mass of left express rubbish.

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The data shows that, on 2015, the total length of the tape used by the national express industry is 16.985 billion meters, which can be circled around the equator 425 times. On 2016, there are totally 31.2 billion express businesses in China. About 20.7 billion waybills, 3.1 billion woven bags and 8.268 billion plastic bags are consumed by the express delivery system. With the Double Eleven and Double Twelve promotion festivals grandly coming in second half of the year, China environmental protection online forecasted, in 2017, the express service will have some growth than in 2016.

As a result, after the boom of express-delivery, hundreds of millions of express garbage is left behind. But, where exactly should they go? Where did you end up?

Excessive packaging is serious; the recovery rate is low 

Express garbage originates from the material used in the packaging of goods during express delivery. There are paper boxes, plastic bags, poly-foam, tapes and waybills. It's worth noting that only some of these materials can be recycled; the rest of the material is unrecyclable and unbreakable.

At the same time, this express garbage is basically disposable consumer goods. Due to lack of formal recycling channels, consumers often throw them into dumpsters only. It is said that the packaging waste delivered by express packages reached a million tons; but the recovery rate is less than 10 percent.

Since there is an ecological risk of express rubbish, and recycling cannot keep up with consumption, why can't we reduce the volume of the garbage? Actually, most of us may have seen this phenomenon; we just shop online a small thing; but package of the express is layer by layer; the carton is filled with air sacs and foam pads.

So, except the surged of express delivery volume, package with layer by layer is another main reasons of express rubbish growth. Due to the competition of various e-commerce platforms, avoiding the damage during transportation and the reduction of return probability, most of sellers put on extra-package for goods, thus indirectly increasing the volume of the express garbage.

All parties work together to solve the problem

Now, with the effect of express garbage on the environment, China has begun to make a difference in policy. A series of legal standards are being perfected, such as Express Business Operation Instruction Specification, The Express Delivery Industry Development 13th Five-year Plan, Guidance on Accelerating the Transformation and Development of Packaging Industry in China and Compulsory Classification of Municipal Solid Waste.

Cracking express garbage siege, the relevant departments still need to perfect the recycling system, improve the recycling rate, standardize express transportation management, curb excessive packaging and reduce the source of waste deliver; and also need to introduce the preferential policies to promote the use of recyclable packaging materials and encourage consumers to correctly classify and recycle.

In addition, the experts put forward a concept of green express, exploring the integration mechanism of transportation recovery and reuse. In this industry chain, the government, express enterprises, e-commerce platforms and consumers are having the same responsibility. China's Environmental Protection Online believes that to reach green express package, each party should do its part and contribute its own strength.

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