Statistics show that the output of domestic municipal solid waste is growing at an annual rate of 8 to 9 percent. Among them, the increase of express waste can not be underestimated. According to the statistics of the express logistics Information Service platform, in mega cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the increase of express packaging waste has accounted for 93% of the increase of household waste, and most of it contains plastics and other components that are difficult to degrade in the environment.
According to the General Administration of Post, the postal industry delivered 139.1 billion items in 2022, up 2.7 percent year on year. Among them, the volume of express delivery was 110.58 billion, up 2.1% year on year; Business revenue reached 1.06 trillion yuan, up 2.3% year on year. Under the recovery of consumption, e-commerce and express business is expected to continue to show an upward trend this year. Behind these figures, there is a huge amount of waste to be disposed of.
According to estimates by Duan Huabo, associate professor at the School of Environmental Science and Engineering at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and his team, the express delivery industry generated nearly 20 million tons of packaging waste in 2022, including the packaging of goods themselves. Packaging in the express industry mainly includes express waybills, woven bags, plastic bags, envelopes, corrugated boxes, tape, and a large number of fillers such as bubble bags, bubble film and foamed plastics. For online shoppers, the phenomenon of "sticky tape", "big box inside small box" and "inflatable film filling the carton" seems to be common.
How to properly digest these millions of tons of waste through the urban solid waste treatment system is a key issue worth our consideration. Previous data from the State Post Administration showed that 90 percent of paper packaging materials in China can be recycled, while plastic packaging waste is rarely used effectively except for foam boxes. Packaging material reuse, improve the reuse rate of express packaging, or take harmless treatment for degradation treatment, is the main direction of the current express logistics industry to promote environmental protection upgrading.
Post time: Apr-21-2023
