Express Packaging Piles Up at the Logistics Peak: How to Help It “Slim Down and Shed Load”?

As major e-commerce platforms begin their mid-year promotions, from June onwards nearly 400 million express parcels flow across the country every day. However, in interviews reporters found that a big box inside a small box, packaging boxes stuffed with plastic foam, and goods only visible after tearing through layer upon layer of wrapping… excessive express packaging of this kind is still common.

The reporter calculated that the volume of this removed packaging is about five times that of the goods purchased. Because much of it cannot be reused, it can only be sent to waste recycling stations, becoming the "main force" of household waste.

CCTV reporter Chen Qingbin: At the recycling station in this community, we see that the largest volume of recyclables collected here is this kind of carton. These cartons have been sorted and arranged, and there are also foam boxes and plastic items like these. All the recyclables at this station are collected by a recycling worker every day.

Staff told the reporter that there are currently about 200 such stations in Tianjin, each handling about 5 tonnes of recyclables a day, of which express packaging waste accounts for about 80%.

Innovating Green Packaging to Break Through Technical and Cost Barriers

At present, China's express delivery industry handles an average of 350 million items a day and serves nearly 700 million users a day, ranking first in the world for many consecutive years. Properly solving the problem of excessive express packaging is not only urgent but also an intrinsic requirement for the industry's transformation, upgrading and sustainable development. The key to helping express packaging "slim down" is still to start at the source and work hard on packaging design. So how is the development of recyclable green, eco-friendly packaging going? And where do the difficulties in R&D and promotion lie? With these questions, the reporter visited the China Post Green Packaging Innovation Laboratory.

CCTV reporter Tang Ying: At the R&D site of the China Post Green Packaging Innovation Laboratory, this packaging prototyping machine is producing samples according to the design drawings of the R&D staff.

Gao Kang, packaging engineer at the China Post Green Packaging Laboratory: Once the box is glued, it goes through physical tests such as drop, vibration and impact tests to verify the safety of the contents in a real scenario. If it fails to meet the standard, we will consider first adjusting the paper used, increasing the paper's grammage, then re-adjusting the paper material selection, redrawing the drawings, repeating the process and testing again, until it meets our requirements.

Besides cartons, the various items frequently used in express delivery, such as bubble wrap and tape, also go through multiple rounds of testing. R&D staff said that the tape often used to wrap packaging is a key and difficult point in R&D.

Kang Li, technical supervisor at the China Post Green Packaging Laboratory: Compared with traditional ordinary tape, (degradable tape) may be less strong when packing, only reaching about 50% of our traditional tape's strength, and its cost is slightly higher, rising by nearly three times.

To solve this strength problem, Kang Li and her colleagues carried out countless tensile tests, observing the curves in real time. After nearly two years of continuous effort, they finally launched a new fully bio-degradable eco-friendly tape this year. During waste recycling, the tape and carton do not need to be separated, and under suitable conditions this tape can even degrade directly into water and carbon dioxide.

Kang Li, technical supervisor at the China Post Green Packaging Laboratory: The cost has fallen further, by 10%, so this is a major technological breakthrough for us. In the process of promoting circular packaging, companies do face increased costs and changes in operating methods at the grassroots level. We believe that through technological innovation, the application of new materials and new products, and process improvements, its cost can be pressed down as much as possible.

Yet at the green packaging innovation laboratory, the reporter found that many reusable packaging boxes developed long ago are rarely seen or used in daily life.

Kang Li, technical supervisor at the China Post Green Packaging Laboratory: The scenarios in which it is used are currently relatively fixed. It requires face-to-face signing so that the box can be collected back. If it is placed in a self-service locker, it is very hard for the courier to collect it back, and as an express company the loss rate is also relatively high, so we need to gradually build an intelligent management system.

Kang Li told the reporter that currently the use rate of reusable mail bags among China's postal enterprises has reached 96%, but compared with the postal service's tens-of-billions level and the whole industry's hundreds-of-billions level of business volume, circular packaging at the express logistics end still has a lot of room for improvement in terms of usage volume and number of cycles.

Express Companies Explore Advancing "Greening" Across the Whole Process

Express packaging must both ensure the safety of goods and avoid waste. How to find a balance between the two? In the reporter's investigation, more and more express logistics companies are paying attention to and thinking about this problem and, through a variety of approaches, advancing "greening" across the whole process to help express packaging "slim down and shed load".

At an express outlet in Yiwu, Zhejiang, the reporter saw that a green delivery area was specially demarcated. Consumers can accumulate the number of express outer packagings they bring in and exchange them for delivery fees between different cities. In the transport stage, express companies have replaced their previous 9.6-metre box trucks with 15- to 17-metre high-capacity drop-and-hook trailers, immediately reducing pollutant emissions per parcel by more than 70%. Following a transport vehicle, the reporter saw green smart eco-friendly bags at the sorting centre.

Zhu Zhongchen, Deputy Manager of the Human Resources and Comprehensive Management Group at ZTO Express's Yiwu Centre in Zhejiang: This bag has now been cycled more than 110 times, and a chip has been inserted so that it can be sorted automatically within the system. Through the popularisation and promotion of electronic waybills, in the subsequent transit stage we can reduce pollutant emissions from paper by more than 60%. Basically, everything we use now has achieved circular utilisation, forming a closed loop and truly embodying the core value of green environmental protection.

At a postal processing centre in Guizhou, the reporter saw that many e-commerce products have begun using a green reusable "Qingliu" box. Compared with traditional cartons, this box no longer needs tape to seal it; the box body has its own latch, and only a self-adhesive address label is attached.

Yang Biyong, Manager of the Mail Processing Centre of the Guiyang Postal District Centre in Guizhou Province: For some of the province's agricultural benefit projects — rural revitalisation projects such as honey plums, kiwifruit and yellow peaches — our postal service customises green, eco-friendly cartons to ensure that all materials entering our sites meet environmental standards.

The Proportion of No Repackaging Is Expected to Reach 90% by the End of This Year

Governance of excessive express packaging has long been an issue of widespread concern across society. As early as 2009, China carried out special governance of express packaging. In April 2021, the State Post Bureau issued the "Special Governance Plan for Excessive and Arbitrary Packaging of Mail and Express Items". Through the efforts of many parties, the express delivery industry's awareness of green development has gradually increased. Relevant officials said that by the end of this year they will strive to achieve a 90% rate of e-commerce express parcels not being repackaged.

The latest data from the State Post Bureau show that, based on sample inspections of parcels in May, 380 million mail and express items used recyclable packaging and 350 million corrugated cartons in good condition were recycled and reused. In March this year, the State Post Bureau issued the "Implementation Opinions on Promoting the Green and Low-Carbon Development of the Postal and Express Delivery Industry", making clear that the construction of a recycling system for mail and express packaging must be accelerated and that the pilot projects supported by the National Development and Reform Commission for the large-scale application of recyclable express packaging should be advanced.

Guan Aiguang, Deputy Director of the Market Regulation Department of the State Post Bureau: The green governance of express packaging involves many entities, a long chain and a wide range of fields. In advancing it, all departments need to work together and quickly form a situation of joint management; the state needs to issue more tax and fee incentive and subsidy policies to increase the supply of green express packaging; and local government departments at all levels need to increase support to resolve difficult and stuck points such as the high cost, difficult recycling and limited support for circular packaging.

Guan Aiguang said that advancing green packaging is a systematic project. At present, with the large-scale promotion and application of green packaging such as electronic waybills, slimmer tape and lightweight boxes, China has basically entered the 2.0 era of packaging reduction. In this period, it is necessary to shift to material and technological innovation, such as the development of new materials, new types of packaging containers and intelligent packing systems, and to coordinate the goal of reduction from the upstream and downstream of the supply chain.

On the other hand, the circular packaging market at the logistics end needs to achieve a technological breakthrough. Promoting and applying circular packaging is an important part of the green postal strategy and an important means of exploring the green transformation of packaging.

Guan Aiguang, Deputy Director of the Market Regulation Department of the State Post Bureau: By the end of the year, we will achieve a 90% rate of e-commerce express parcels not being repackaged, deepen the two governance efforts on excessive packaging and plastic pollution, reach 1 billion mail items using recyclable express packaging, and recycle and reuse 800 million corrugated cartons in good condition.

—This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn); original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-379423.html