In every city in China, there are hordes of motorcycles and mopeds shuttled in traffic jams, and sometimes even risky on the sidewalks, transporting millions of food and e-commerce orders every day. Meituan is one of the most popular food delivery apps in China, delivering 30 million orders and 100 million plastic containers every day. According to data from Greenpeace, China's e-commerce and express delivery generated 9.4 million tons of packaging waste in 2018, which may triple to 41.3 million tons by 2025.

In 2019 alone, 63.25 billion e-commerce packages transported 280,000 tons of plastic waste, equivalent to the weight of about 23 school buses. Although 40% of e-commerce paper packaging is recycled in China, research led by Shenzhen University and the University of Michigan emphasizes that the smallest plastic packaging from e-commerce can enter recycling plants. Most of the poorly managed waste flows into rivers and streams.

For example, 1.5 million tons of plastic waste flows out of the Yangtze River every year, accounting for 55% of global river-to-ocean plastic leakage. It is estimated that 100,000 tons of plastic waste flows into the ocean through the Pearl River in Guangdong each year. The relentless flow of plastic into rivers and oceans has triggered pressure from policies and NGOs in China to stop these leaks. 

The Chinese government began a pilot project of garbage collection and sorting in 2017. Three years later, the State Council issued a national e-commerce and food distribution guide to collect garbage volume data. Guangdong and Hainan provinces took the lead in issuing single-use plastic bans in 2020. One year later, the national ban on bags and straws took effect.

The top-down action matches the growing grassroots activism surrounding plastics. In 2018, Plastic Free China was established to focus on reducing single-use plastic products through corporate activities to change business practices and consumer behavior. Plastic Free China proposed policy changes for express delivery supervision, co-authored a report on e-commerce and food delivery waste with Greenpeace China, and cooperated with the Plastic Free Natural Action Network of WWF China. 

China Environment Forum sat down with CEO and co-founder Zheng Xue and project officer Lu Xueli to discuss how plastic-free China can contribute to the reduction of plastics.

Photo Credit: Takeaway Chinese food at a restaurant in Beijing, including Peking duck and other delicacies, courtesy of quiggyt4/Shutterstock.com

Solange Reppas is a research assistant at the China Environment Forum in the summer of 2021. She is studying for a bachelor's degree in Public Policy and East Asian Languages ​​and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. 

Zhu Mingwei is a research assistant at the China Environment Forum in the summer of 2021. He studied how grassroots NGOs in Asia are working hard to deal with plastic waste and other environmental challenges. 

Zhu Tongxin is an assistant analyst for the Beijing Innovative Green Development Program. She supports research related to carbon, energy and climate change in various provinces and cities in China. She is a research assistant for China Environment Forum 2020-21.

McKenna Potter is a research assistant at the China Environment Forum. She is a double degree undergraduate in Global Business and International Political Economy at the University of Texas at Dallas, and is also a Bill Archer researcher focusing on the sustainable development of international business.

Main image source: Meituan takeaway deliveryman navigates Shanghai traffic, courtesy of Andy Feng/Shutterstock.com.

Source: CENews, Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, CGTN, China News Network, Elsevier, Friends of Nature, Greenpeace, China National Development and Reform Commission, Plastic Free China, Haitong, National Post Office of the People's Republic of China, Drug Free Corps , Judgment, Washington Post.

© Copyright 2007-2021. Environmental change and safety plan.

Woodrow Wilson International Scholars Center. all rights reserved.

Developed by Vico Rock Media

Environmental change and safety plan

Woodrow Wilson International Scholars Center

Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center