China urges green transition for courier sector as e-commerce boom leaves a trail of packaging waste

Beijing aims to establish a standard system for green packaging by the end of 2025, and ban the use of toxic and harmful materials
China’s express delivery industry consumes more than 9 million tons of paper and about 1.8 million tons of plastic each year

Business of climate change

Yujie Xue

Published: 4:32pm, 19 Dec 2023

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China’s decarbonisation campaign has its cross hairs trained on the country’s mountain of discarded courier packaging material as the volume of parcels delivered hits a record high while Beijing is scrambling to meet its ambitious climate goals.

The country aims to establish a standard system for green courier packaging by the end of 2025, and ban the use of toxic and harmful materials, according to a joint action plan unveiled by the central economic planner National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), State Post Bureau, and six other state authorities.

China’s express delivery industry consumes more than 9 million tons of paper and about 1.8 million tons of plastic on average each year, according to data released by the eight state departments in 2020.

China, the world’s biggest generator of plastic waste, kicked off a five-year plan in 2020, setting ambitious targets including banning the production and sale of non-biodegradable plastic bags, free disposable plastic products at hotels and plastic packaging used by courier deliveries nationwide by 2025.

This photo taken on November 12, 2023 shows workers sorting packages for delivery after the Singles' Day shopping festival at a logistics centre in Hengyang, in China’s central Hunan province. Photo: AFP

Some of China’s leading online shopping and logistics companies, including Alibaba Group Holding’s logistics arm Cainiao, JD.com, and SF Express, have also taken action to reduce and replace plastics and other packaging wastes, by experimenting with recycling packaging materials and reusable delivery boxes. E-commerce giants and delivery service companies must take the lead in reducing excessive packaging on their own platforms, and promoting recyclable courier packaging, according to the action plan which has set a deadline of end-2025 by when at least 10 per cent of the same-city delivery parcels should use recyclable packaging.

China’s annual volume of delivery packages has exceeded the 100 billion pieces mark for three consecutive years since 2021, according to China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate, which added that growing use of courier services had led to mounting package waste.

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“As an emerging industry, the express delivery sector has developed rapidly in the past decade, while its relevant supporting laws, regulations, and rules are still under exploration and improvement,” it said. “The pressure brought on by packaging waste on resources and the environment is closely related to people’s daily lives.”

The action plan follows China’s 12.12 shopping festival last week, in which the country’s e-commerce giants Alibaba Group Holding, Pinduoduo, and JD.com all launched major campaigns of discounted sales in a bid to enable a post-Covid economic recovery.

With less than a month to go, the number of delivered parcels in China this year has already exceeded 120 billion pieces, or about 100 parcels per person on average, and up 8.5 per cent from the whole of 2022, according to the State Post Bureau earlier this month.