What do you think of the first "green package specification for express delivery" in China?

With the rapid development of China's postal express industry, the consumption of express mail packaging has increased dramatically, resulting in increasingly prominent resource consumption and environmental risks. The green governance of express mail packaging has increasingly high requirements for standardization, institutionalization and systematization, especially in the past, due to the lack of unified packaging operation and management standards, there was a certain degree of over packaging and random packaging in the delivery enterprises.
In order to solve the above problems, the State Post Office issued a survey outline to provincial (district, city) post administrations and the headquarters of major brand delivery enterprises in December 2019, and made a thorough investigation on the implementation of the Green Packaging Guidelines for the Express Industry (Trial). On this basis, the State Post Office studied and drafted the Code for Green Packaging of Mail Express (Draft for Comments) (referred to as the Code (Draft for Comments)). On February 10, 2020, the State Postal Administration solicited opinions and suggestions from provincial (district, city) postal administrations and brand delivery enterprise headquarters in writing on the Specification (Draft for Comments), and on March 11, solicited opinions from the public through the official website. On this basis, the Code for Green Packaging of Express Mail was formulated and issued for implementation on June 12, 2020.
This paper compares the "Specification (Draft for Comments)" with the officially effective "Code for Green Packaging of Express Mail", tries to analyze the differences and improvements between the official version and the opinion version, and puts forward corresponding comments and modification suggestions for its shortcomings and problems.
In the official version, the responsibilities of enterprises for green packaging, volume reduction and recycling have been further strengthened, and the specific requirements for enterprises have also been stricter, which are mainly reflected in the following three aspects:
1. Compared with the opinion version, the force of the formal version has been improved.
Through comparison, it is found that there are many words such as "encourage" and "should" in the opinion version, while in the official version, these words have become mandatory requirements of "should" and "in principle". For example, Article 6 of the official version requires that the sending enterprise "should" disclose to the public the information related to the standards and packaging operation specifications implemented by the enterprise, rather than just "encourage" the disclosure in the opinion. Similarly, the words "encourage not to use adhesive tape on the existing adhesive function design and packaging bags" in the opinion version have become the requirement "do not use adhesive tape on the existing adhesive function design and packaging bags" in the official version.
2. Emphasize the recyclability of products, promote the reduction at the source, and clarify the corresponding corporate responsibilities.
Article 5 of the official version stipulates that enterprises "should give priority to packaging with low gram weight and high strength, which is reusable and easy to recycle", while the opinion version does not mention "reusable". During the period of soliciting comments on the draft, we once submitted a revision to get rid of plastic bondage. Our revision also mentioned that reuse should be included in the main measures for packaging reduction. Reuse of packaging can reduce the use of packaging from the source, reduce the consumption of resources and the impact of packaging waste on the environment.
It is worth mentioning that Article 23 of the Opinion Edition stipulates: "Enterprises are encouraged to recycle paper packaging boxes and fillings with good appearance and up to standard quality. Packaging wastes such as plastic packaging bags should be collectively handed over to environmental sanitation enterprises for harmless treatment".
We think that this expression is ambiguous. If only paper packaging boxes and fillings are recycled, and the recycling of plastic fillings is not considered, then it will be of little help to the greening of packaging and the reduction of plastic. Therefore, we also put forward the hope that packaging fillers (including plastic and non plastic) can be reused and recycled for many times in our revision comments. After the official version is released, the expression will be translated into packaging such as packaging boxes and fillings that are intact in appearance and up to standard in quality, which will be recycled by the delivery enterprise. Packaging materials that cannot be recycled shall be properly disposed according to relevant regulations. We are glad to see that our opinions have been adopted, which has contributed to the promotion of packaging volume reduction.
3. As a social organization concerned with the reduction of plastic, we are pleased to see that this specification gives environmental protection organizations more room to play.
For example, in Article 27 of the official version, it is mentioned that "express enterprises and packaging production enterprises, scientific research institutions, universities and environmental protection organizations should strengthen cooperation, strengthen the connection between production, teaching and research, promote green packaging research and development, design and production, focus on packaging issues, deepen exploration and innovation, and promote the application of green products, technologies and models". Article 28 The delivery enterprises are also required to fully listen to the suggestions of users, media and social organizations to improve the effectiveness of green packaging.
The road of green packaging needs the joint efforts of the society, which can not be achieved by the government and enterprises, and the cooperation of the public is particularly important. These two articles not only recognize social organizations, but also strengthen multi-party cooperation, providing an effective guarantee for solving the problem of express packaging and promoting green development.