Dear MEL Topic Readers,
Report sheds light on waste in booming
delivery services
Alibaba’s online platforms sold goods worth
$38 billion on November 11, Singles’ Day, alone, easily surpassing last year’s
record $30.7 billion mark. And this world’s largest sales event isn’t limited
only to Alibaba, but other online retailers took part in the festivity drawing
over half a billion shoppers. However, this and following few days are the worst
time for the environment. The delivery of the goods purchased by a single click
or touch.
China’s express delivery businesses are fast-growing and creating more paper and plastic waste every day. It is estimated that
the carbon emissions from these delivery packaging services reached 13 million
tons last year, which requires over 700 million trees to neutralize.
But China is not a country that sits still
before problems. They often act quickly and decisively. Last month, the Post Bureau
announced regulations that require 70% of packaging materials used by express
delivery services to be renewable by the end of the year. That’s a substantial
increase from today’s 44%. How will those service companies procure renewable
packaging materials in such a short period of time? If they’ve already used
conventional materials for the Singles’ Day deliveries, it would be extremely
difficult to achieve the number.
Enjoy reading the article and think about how much
waste you are creating per click or touch.
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