ZCZC
BCN-40
CHINA-PLASTIC-POLLUTION-ECONOMY
China seeks to green logistics services to beat plastic pollution:
Economic Watch
BEIJING, June 6, 20180 (BSS/Xinhua) – The rapid development of China’s
logistics industry has made daily delivery services quicker and cheaper, and
now the world’s largest delivery service market is looking to make logistics
greener by reducing plastic pollution.
The country saw about 40 billion parcels delivered last year, up 28 percent
year on year, ranking top globally for the fourth consecutive year, official
data showed.
The 40 billion parcels required about 8 billion plastic envelopes and a
huge amount of rolls of tape, which prove to be a growing concern for
environmental pollution, according to Sun Kang, secretary general of China
Express Association.
The problem of parcel packaging pollution has drawn attention from
regulators. It is reported to be one of the topics highlighted at a tone-
setting national meeting on environmental protection in May which aims to
achieve a fundamental improvement in the quality of the environment and
basically build a Beautiful China by 2035.
The State Post Bureau (SPB) and another nine government agencies last
November issued guidelines which require that half of external packaging to
be biodegradable, 90 percent of bills electronic, and packaging for each
parcel reduced by 10 percent by 2020.
The country’s top standardization administration issued new guidelines in
February that require packages for express delivery goods to be thinner and
more recyclable effective from September.
Meanwhile, many logistics market players, both state-owned and private,
have taken measures to address the challenge.
China Post Group Corporation, the state-owned postal service provider, said
last month that it is aiming for over 90 percent of its waybills to be
digital and for more than half of its packaging materials to be biodegradable
by 2020.
Cainiao Network Technology Co Ltd, the logistics affiliate of Alibaba
Group, announced plans in late May that all of its delivery sheets would be
made from renewable materials by 2020, and it would promote the use of a
paperless, electronic system for logging deliveries.
E-commerce site Suning.com has planned to increase the number of recyclable
delivery boxes to 200,000 this year and use at least 2 billion green packages
by 2020.
China’s green logistics technology equals or even outperforms that of
foreign counterparts, but the country is still in the early stages of
developing a green logistics mechanism, said Fang Xi, a senior SPB
researcher.
“It takes effort not only from logistics firms, but also improving public
awareness and a sounder regulation framework,” Fang added.
BSS/XINHUA/HR/1445