China to reduce waste with green packaging

As China wages a war against garbage with a new waste sorting scheme, the country's postal authority has its eye on a major producer of waste: the express delivery industry.

By the end of this year, 95 percent of delivery packages are expected to use electronic waybills to reduce the use of paper sheets, according to the State Post Bureau (SPB).

The SPB also vowed to reduce over-packaging in e-commerce and increase the use of environmentally friendly packaging materials.

While the country's booming e-commerce industry has helped bring food and daily consumer goods to the doors of Chinese households within days or even hours, it has generated massive amount of packages that are increasingly a threat to the environment.

China's express delivery sector handled 50.7 billion parcels in 2018, an increase of 26.6 percent year on year, according to the SPB.

To ease pressure on the environment, express delivery firms are encouraged to recycle used boxes, reduce unnecessary packaging and use biodegradable packaging materials.

Such green packaging initiatives are expected to save the country 207 million disposable plastic bags each year, according to the SPB.