With the rapid development of e-commerce, China's express delivery industry has shown explosive growth, which brings with it the consumption of massive express packaging.

The National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment recently issued the "Opinions on Further Strengthening the control of plastic Pollution", and China will strengthen the control of plastic pollution in accordance with the idea of "prohibiting a batch, replacing a batch of recycling, and standardizing a batch".

The "Opinion" specifically mentions the governance of plastic packaging in the postal express industry: by the end of 2022, postal express outlets in Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong and other provinces and cities will first prohibit the use of non-degradable plastic bags, disposable plastic woven bags, etc., to reduce the use of non-degradable plastic tape. By the end of 2025, the postal express outlets nationwide will prohibit the use of non-degradable plastic bags, plastic tape, disposable plastic woven bags, etc.

With the rapid development of e-commerce, China's express industry has shown explosive growth, which brings with it the consumption of massive express packaging, therefore, the "Opinions" will also express and other emerging areas as an important content of plastic pollution control work, clear the specific measures and targets for the prevention and control of plastic pollution.

Plastic packaging and carton tape

According to the reporter, the application of plastic packaging in the express delivery industry is mainly reflected in small clothing and other electrical goods, such as some small e-commerce pieces with low value and free mail, or low value-added clothing.

If the current plastic packaging is replaced with some paper boxes or new materials, it will bring a certain increase in cost, and whether this increase in cost is passed to consumers depends on the negotiating power of Courier companies and businesses.

In addition to plastic packaging, the tape used on the carton used by e-commerce products is also plastic.

It is understood that at present, Tmall and rookie have joined forces with businesses to promote non-tape cartons.

According to incomplete statistics, in the past year, the Tmall flagship stores of nearly 40 brands such as L 'Oreal and Lancome issued 150 million tape-free environmental cardboard boxes, equivalent to reducing the use of more than 200 million meters of tape, which can be connected around the Earth 5.6 times.

In addition, Ciao also promotes "tape slimness" in the warehouse, reduces the width of plastic sealing tape, shrinks from 60 mm to 45 mm, and works with Tmall supermarket, Retail Pass, etc., to promote original box delivery, recycled carton delivery, to reduce the use of new cartons, express bags and plastic stuffing, and currently more than 50% of the packages in Tmall supermarket and retail Pass are no longer secondary packaging.

Head companies are already in action

The reporter consulted "four to one" and other express companies also found that in the delivery process of express involves plastics, mainly tape and filling materials, and this piece has put forward the "9792" project goal at the level of the State Post Bureau.

By 2020, the postal industry strives to achieve the "9792" goal of "thin tape" packaging ratio of 90%, e-commerce express no longer secondary packaging rate of 70%, recycling bag utilization rate of 90%, and 20,000 new postal express outlets that set up standard packaging waste recycling devices.

In fact, in recent years, under the promotion of the State Post Bureau and other departments, the express delivery industry has been promoting ecological and environmental protection work in the industry. Statistics show that in 2019, the national electronic waybill utilization rate reached 98%, the e-commerce express package no longer secondary packaging rate reached 52%, the recycling transfer bag utilization rate reached 75%, 30,000 outlets set up standard packaging waste recycling devices, the "skinny tape" packaging ratio reached 75%, and 31,000 new energy and clean energy vehicles were added.

During the Tmall Double 11 in 2019, express delivery companies such as STO, ZTO and YTO invested more than 8 million environmentally friendly bags every day, promoting the industry to significantly reduce the use of plastic bags.

Cainiao told reporters that Cainiao also optimized the carton model and recommended the appropriate packing plan through the packing algorithm to reduce the vacancy rate of express packages to reduce the use of plastic stuffing. At present, the Cainiao packing algorithm can reduce the amount of packaging materials by 15% on average, and has been promoted for the whole industry.

Sf set up the industry's first logistics packaging laboratory in 2013 to develop green packaging solutions through the packaging innovation research and development platform.

However, SF Express also pointed out that because the procurement cost of degradable materials is at least 1 times more expensive than conventional materials, the state has no clear policy support, which brings a certain cost pressure to enterprises, but also makes it difficult for more enterprises to invest in a large area; In addition, the lag of industry-related standards also affects the objective evaluation, such as the detection and evaluation standards for degradable materials, and the measurement methods for energy conservation and emission reduction of express delivery enterprises, resulting in uneven quality of green products in the express delivery market.

In this regard, the State Post Bureau pointed out in the 2020 work plan that the postal management department promotes the improvement of the industry's green development policy system, carries out the express packaging green product certification, builds the industry's ecological environmental protection monitoring platform, and improves the information collection, evaluation, reporting and notification work system. At the same time, we revised the green operation guidelines for express packaging, strictly implemented the requirements for standardized and standardized packaging operations, and promoted the implementation of the extended responsibility system for producers.