Cainiao and Suning Move Toward Green Packaging: New Progress Again

[China Packaging Network News] Green packaging has been a social focus for the past two years, with giants such as Cainiao, JD.com, Suning and SF Express leading the trend, and now there is new progress.

Cainiao Logistics Strikes First, Establishing a "Green Alliance" in the Logistics Industry

With the rapid development of China's e-commerce, the accompanying increase in packaging pollution has gradually become one of the major threats to the environment. Cainiao struck first, establishing a "Green Alliance" in the logistics industry and declaring war on express delivery pollution!

1688 is Alibaba's wholesale and procurement platform, serving tens of millions of small and medium-sized merchants. As early as last year, the Cainiao Green Action joined hands with 1688 Enterprise Huicai to open a dedicated green packaging zone, attracting upstream and downstream suppliers to settle in and providing buyers with a convenient green procurement channel.

The actions are there, but are the results obvious?

First, let's look at the green procurement data released jointly by Cainiao and 1688: in 2018, the number of green packaging buyers on the 1688 platform doubled compared with 2017, and sales exceeded 100 million pieces, 4.67 times that of 2017! In other words, more and more companies are using eco-friendly packaging.

Statistics show that in 2018 the 1688 platform sold a total of over 100 million pieces of eco-friendly packaging, enough to cover 800 football fields! On average, 2,500 buyers purchased eco-friendly packaging each month, with enterprise buyers accounting for the largest purchase volume, especially manufacturing and processing enterprises, followed by cross-border e-commerce companies, trading companies, physical store owners and others.

Among them, the "king" with the highest annual sales was the eco-friendly express bag! A supplier of eco-friendly express bags said: after the green procurement platform was established, more merchants with customization needs came to us, making it a very good window.

In addition to eco-friendly express bags, there are also bags, cups, bottles and a rich variety of other eco-friendly packaging. Not only that, merchants can also customize green packaging materials in different sizes and add printed logos, meeting the diverse needs of the retail end.

"In the future, we want every parcel to contribute to environmental protection," said Wan Lin, President of Cainiao Network. Green logistics is not simply swapping a few electric vehicles; it requires the joint efforts of the entire chain, the entire industry and the whole society.

The promotion of green logistics by China's technology platforms is already clearly leading the world: Cainiao's packing algorithm has covered tens of thousands of brands, and has cumulatively "slimmed down" more than 500 million parcels; Cainiao's smart new-energy logistics vehicles are running in 40 cities across the country, with nearly 1,000 in Guangzhou and Shenzhen alone; Cainiao's "Box Return Plan" has set up about 5,000 recycling stations in 200 cities, and during Tmall's "Double 11" in 2018, 13 million cardboard boxes were recycled offline...

At this year's Two Sessions, Zhang Jindong, a deputy to the National People's Congress and Chairman of Suning Holding Group, further proposed the suggestion of "Formulating National Standards for Recyclable Packaging and Building a Green Packaging Recycling System" on the basis of last year's proposal to vigorously support green packaging actions.

In fact, in terms of green logistics, Suning Logistics has always been a pioneer.

At the warehousing end, Suning Logistics has now launched smart packaging in warehouses nationwide that can match material types according to user orders, along with "black technologies" such as a 3D packing algorithm that automatically recommends packaging size and position based on the product, increasing the parcel fill rate by 18.8% and effectively reducing the waste of packaging cardboard boxes.

In areas such as shipping labels and tape, Suning Logistics insists on innovative applications that are reduced, green and recyclable. The liner-free label put into use in 2018 reduced the use of BOPP film by 20 million square meters in one year. Sealing tape has been continuously narrowed, from 53mm to 48mm and then to 45mm; the 8 mm change has brought about a saving of about 100 million meters of tape per year.

It is worth mentioning that Suning Logistics has always been iteratively upgrading its green express packaging. For example, after the upgrade, the shared express box uses a zero-tape design, is foldable and can be 100% recycled and reused at least 20 times; the dedicated recyclable insulated box for cold chain reduces at least 20 million white foam boxes each year...

Data show that in 2018, Suning Logistics' green recyclable products represented by the shared express box were deployed 100 million times in total, and the tape saved could circle the earth 3.74 times.

Suning Logistics' next step is to link, circulate and standardize these products, and by developing green warehousing, green packaging, green distribution and green last-mile delivery, continuously reduce express packaging waste and advance the reduction, greening and recyclability of green logistics; through building a green logistics ecosystem, it will activate new momentum for the development of urban civilization and collaboratively promote the popularization and normalization of green logistics and express delivery cities.

During last year's Double 11, Suning Logistics' "Green City Plan" strategy was officially released, "packing" green packaging products and technologies such as electronic shipping labels, slimmed-down labels, narrower tape and the 3D packing algorithm into more parcels to form a full-chain green logistics solution. And just recently, the relevant person in charge of Suning Logistics announced: "We have also set a flag: by 2020, we aim to complete the rollout of shared express boxes in 100 cities nationwide, with a total of 2 billion green recyclable packaging products deployed, to help ecological and environmental protection."

Now, with the strengthening of environmental awareness across society, brands and express delivery companies that use green packaging are increasingly recognized by consumers. Driven vigorously by national policies, green packaging has become a major development trend for the industry.