Biofore Magazine 2020

By Letitia Lin Photography iStock

FEATURE

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paper packaging materials might also con- tribute to waste reduction in China. As more advanced technology is introduced in the production process, paper packaging is expectedtobelighter,morewaterproofand cost-effective to replace plastic packaging while meeting the needs of all industries. “In terms of recyclability, degradability and renewability, paper is still considered a more sustainablematerial than biodegrad- able plastics,” explainsWang. The crux of the solution, however, may lie in Chinese consumers’ awareness of sustainability. With China’s food-order and e-commerce businesses still expected to grow, experts worry that the country’s battle withwaste is only becoming harder. While Shanghai’s success is noteworthy, it remains to be seen whether other cities with fewer resources can duplicate the city’s success in waste sorting. “The real key is to consume less,” says Wang. “But if we can’t consume less, we can at least start using more sustainable packaging materials.” As shown at this year’s China Packaging Container Expo, an increasing number of packagingmanu- facturers in China are nowmaking efforts in downgauging packaging, usingmore re- cyclable or recycledmaterials, and replac- ing fossil-based materials with renewable and biodegradable ones.

behaviour echo Wang’s observation. The research group has been closely follow- ing the waste sorting process in six com- munities in Shanghai since last year, and found that once people realise they bear the responsibility for sorting waste, they aremore likely to continue to recycle even without supervision and potential sanc- tions like fines. According to the data provided by the Shanghai government, when the recy- cling guidance volunteers withdrew from the local communities in March amid the coronavirus pandemic, two-thirds of Shanghai residents still maintained their Despite the impressive advancement in recycling observed in Shanghai, China’s waste problem is still urgent thanks to the growing use of plastic packaging, especial- ly from the food delivery and e-commerce business, two of the fastest growing sec- tors in the country. Meituan, the largest food-delivery group in China, revealed in August that its plat- form alone processed more than 40 mil- lion orders per day. According to an esti- mation by Greenpeace China, every food delivery on average involves 3.27 units of single-use plastic containers, whichmeans waste sorting practice. More effort required

at aminimum, more than 130millionunits of non-degradable plastic bags or boxes are put into use every day by the food delivery industry inChina. The situation does not look any bright- er in the e-commerce industry, where almost 34% of the delivery packages use plastics. Although many of these materi- als are recyclable, research conducted by Greenpeace last year found that 95% of such plastic packaging is burnt or buried along with household waste due to its low recycle value. Even under the new recy- cling regime in Shanghai, plastic packag- ing materials are classified as dry waste and excluded from the official recycling system. Damin Tang , a campaigner at Green- peace East Asia, thinks that more efforts are needed from the e-commerce com- panies since simply replacing single-use plastics with recyclable materials is not enough. “To reduce the amount of deliv- ery packaging waste, we need a systemic reformof thewholedeliveryprocess,” says Tang. Several small-scale pilot projects in this direction have been launched. For ex- ample, some delivery companies in China now offer “shared express boxes”, which can be reused for multiple deliveries. Since paper is easier to be recycled and biodegraded at the end of its lifetime, new

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