Single's Day In China Estimated To Generate 250,000 Tonnes Of Waste As It Breaks Sales Records
China has Singles Day which is celebrated on eleventh of November every year by people who are single relationship-wise and truly happy about it. This year the Singles day broke new sales records. However these records come at a cost to the environment particularly in the area of waste generation. According to organisation Greenpeace accumulate waste from Chinas e-commerce and express delivery sectors would quadruple by the year 2025 until string...Read More
Just like Black Friday in the US, where the country gets the best deals on electronics China has Single's Day which is celebrated on eleventh of November every year by people who are single, relationship-wise and truly happy about it.
Reuters
This year, the Single's day broke new sales records. However, these records come at a cost to the environment, particularly in the area of waste generation.
According to organisation Greenpeace, accumulate waste from China's e-commerce and express delivery sectors would quadruple by the year 2025 until stringent policies and protocols aren't put in place.
Last year, the volume of packaging material used by the aforementioned sectors hit 9.4-million tonnes. It is expected to go as high as 41.3 million tonnes by 2025 if Chinese conglomerates keep moving at the current pace.
According to Tang Damin, a plastics campaigner with Greenpeace in Beijing, "The e-commerce giants have barely offered even superficial responses. They're biding their time for regulation to come out."
Sales during the Single's Day celebration went as high as CNY 84 billion or approximately $12 billion. This was 22-percent more than last year.
Moreover, last year, 1.88 billion packages were shipped in total from November 11 to November 16. This was at an annual increase of 26 percent.
While there is no exact figure on waste accumulation for this year's deliveries, Greenpeace is estimating it to be around 250,000 tonnes.
Reuters
China has been putting regulations with e-commerce brands to adhere to recycling protocols. Recently it published a draft of packaging standards to adhere with the list of recyclable materials.
E-commerce retailer JD.com also recently announced that it had limited the use of plastic tapes and use of paper at its warehouses while also adopting use of recyclable materials.
According to Antoine Grange, chief executive for recycling at SUEZ Asia, "We cannot say China is not recycling. One point that is more difficult in China is traceability, and the lack of infrastructure to separate waste."
