China advances green transition of courier sector

Despite China's courier industry seeing the monthly average parcels delivered surge to 10 billion, the country has pushed forward its green transformation of the sector, promoting environmentally friendly packaging.

Data from the State Post Bureau (SPB) showed that in 2023, over 95 percent of e-commerce parcels were no longer overpackaged, more than 1 billion express mail and parcels used reusable packages, and over 820 million corrugated boxes were in good condition to be recycled and reused.

Employees work along a sorting line at an e-commerce and logistics industrial park in Donghai county, Lianyungang city, east China's Jiangsu Province, Feb. 16, 2024. (Photo/Zhang Ling)

"In recent years, we have worked with the SPB to continuously promote the standardization of green packaging in the courier industry. We have set up a joint working group to establish a green packaging standard system for express deliveries," said Xu Changxing, deputy director general of the Standards Technical Management Department of the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR).

"In 2020, eight departments jointly issued a guideline on stepping up the standardization of green packaging in the courier industry. Over the past three years, we have been advancing the research, formulation and application of standards in an orderly manner according to the guideline to support the standardization, recycling, minimization, and use of non-harmful materials for express packaging," Xu added.

China has established a system to ensure standards on the entire green packaging chain in the courier sector. By the end of 2023, there were 26 national and industry standards related to green packaging in the courier sector, fully covering major packaging products such as envelopes, packaging bags, packaging boxes, electronic waybills, tapes, cushioning materials and containers.

The country has explored the formulation of national standards for the recycling and reuse of packaging materials. For example, SAMR issued a recommended national standard on circulating packaging for express deliveries, which puts forward technical requirements and test methods for three structures of recyclable express parcel packages.

Employees work at a distribution center of Cainiao, the logistics arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, in Guangrao county, Dongying city, east China's Shandong Province. (Photo/Liu Yunjie)

Recently, China issued a mandatory national standard on limits of heavy metals and other specific substances in express packaging, the first of its kind in the country.

The mandatory national standard specifies the requirements and test methods for heavy metals and harmful substances in express packaging made of paper, plastics and textiles.

The mandatory national standard is of great significance to reducing the adverse impact of express packaging on human health and the environment, and promoting green transformation and upgrading of the courier industry, said Li Aixian, vice president of the China National Institute of Standardization.

Jin Bing, deputy director of the policy and regulation department of the SPB, said that the mandatory national standard and the recommended national standard on circulating packaging for express deliveries will take effect on June 1, 2024 and a new version of the national standard on express service will come into effect on April 1 this year.

A worker of courier service provider YTO Express drives a delivery tricycle in Haidian district, Beijing, Feb. 18, 2024. (Xinhua/Ren Chao)

Chinese express delivery companies have also made contributions to promoting environmentally friendly packaging in the courier sector.

Deppon Express, for example, has formulated response measures regarding excessive packaging and green packaging.

Cainiao, the logistics arm of China's e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, has applied smart packaging algorithms in its warehouses, which can match products to the most suitable packaging format in under a second. This helps reduce waste from overfilling of 300 million parcels every year, equivalent to reducing the use of 80 million cardboard boxes, said an executive of the company.

Additionally, Cainiao has installed RFID chips in recyclable express parcel packages, which improves verification efficiency and greatly reduces the rate of losing packages, the executive added.