China issues rules to promote sustainable packaging in logistics amid Double 11 and Christmas shopping boom

The Chinese government has issued standards to promote sustainable packaging materials in its billion-dollar logistics industry, as it looks to reduce waste in a country where millions of packages are delivered to consumers every day.

In a meeting attended by senior post officials, State Post Bureau Director-General Ma Junsheng said the industry should adopt Chinese president Xi Jinping’s mindset of “ecological civilisation” to “revolutionise” production and promote the development of sustainable packaging and lower the carbon footprint of the industry.

During the meeting, officials discussed and passed a working plan for the postal industry to transform itself as well as an implementation plan for the construction of an online government service platform to integrate the State Post Bureau. Guidelines for green packaging were also approved.

Ma called for postal administrations at all levels to promote green development and help drive this by pushing the implementation of tax reductions and incentives, as well as monitoring and assessing the environmental responsibilities of relevant parties in the industry.

He also called for a reduction of the use of packaging materials in parcels, encouraged electronic waybills instead of paper ones, and called for more recycling of packaging materials.