The excessive consumption of plastic packaging is due to the low cost of use

The food delivery service has become popular, but the "plastic restriction order" is embarrassing At least 7.3 billion plastic bags are consumed annually! Starting from June 1, 2008, China issued a plastic restriction order, prohibiting the production, sale, and use of plastic shopping bags with a thickness less than 0.025 millimeters nationwide. By this year, it has been ten years since the "plastic restriction order" was issued. Surveys have found that in shopping malls and supermarkets, strict compliance with regulations is required, but in vegetable markets, unqualified plastic bags are still repeatedly banned. (June 7th CCTV Finance)

The plastic restriction has encountered embarrassment, and unqualified plastic bags continue to be banned. The problem should be viewed from two dimensions. One is that the level of administrative supervision is uneven. Shopping malls and supermarkets are often able to strictly enforce regulations because the supervision here is relatively strong. Once unqualified plastic bags are found, shopping malls and supermarkets will be punished. In places like vegetable markets, the probability of punishment for using substandard plastic bags is lower, which is why those places have become the hardest hit areas for substandard plastic bags. Some local regulatory authorities have consistently stated that they are powerless and have limited law enforcement capabilities regarding this issue. This is indeed the truth. But the problem of insufficient attention may also exist to some extent.

Another issue is that even qualified plastic bags have relatively low usage costs, which leads to consumers not caring about their use or disposal. Reflecting on the inadequate plastic production over the past decade, many people have pointed their fingers at "selling plastic", saying that the "plastic restriction order" has become a "plastic sales order", and shops have made a lot of money, but plastic bags are increasing. This viewpoint only focuses on "selling plastic" and ignores the cost issue of plastic bags. In fact, supermarkets mainly make money by selling plastic bags in large quantities, and it is precisely because the prices of plastic bags in supermarkets are too low that consumers use them in large quantities and then dispose of them indiscriminately with little reuse. If plastic bags are sold at a higher price, their reuse will increase. Of course, the premise for appropriately increasing prices is the improvement of the quality of plastic bags to meet the requirements of reuse, rather than allowing manufacturers and supermarkets to make huge profits by raising the price of shopping bags.

Now, the food delivery and express delivery industry has become a major consumer of plastic packaging, and the main problems are still due to two major reasons: regulation and consumer cost perception. The author believes that relevant parties should establish packaging standards for the food delivery and express delivery industries, firstly to meet the requirements of reuse, and secondly to require packaging materials to be clearly priced separately, using economic means to urge consumers to reuse them. Last year, a public welfare organization sued three food delivery platforms, requesting the court to order the defendants to change their business models that waste resources and harm the ecological environment, and to clearly price and charge fees for plastic bags and other items. At that time, Sanjia Pingtian had stated that they were actively preparing new environmental protection plans. If legislation and regulation can follow up, the food delivery industry should be more proactive.

Before the Double 11 shopping festival last year, Suning Logistics announced that it would launch a more lightweight and portable "shared express box", with an expected investment of 200000 units by 2018; If the e-commerce industry joins Suning.com 'shared express box plan and gathers everyone's efforts, nearly 46.3 trees in Xiaoxing'an Ridge can be saved in a year. This innovative sharing approach is worthy of government attention and reference from related industries. If administrative measures can be well integrated with market mechanisms, and legislation, regulation, pricing measures, and packaging technology innovation work together, it is possible to promote the environmental protection concept of using less, reusing, and using qualified plastic packaging for both businesses and consumers.