Shanghai Advances Local Legislation on Excessive Packaging: Packaging Reduction and Source Control in Focus

Industry watch: Shanghai is advancing local legislation to curb excessive packaging, with packaging material reduction and source control emerging as key themes.

In recent years, excessive packaging has remained in the public spotlight, drawing repeated media scrutiny. The issue spans a wide range of goods, from tea, tobacco and alcohol to health products, cosmetics, stationery and apparel. Paper boxes and bags, glass bottles, plastic products, and metal boxes and cans account for most of the packaging materials involved. In January this year, at the Municipal People's Congress, deputies jointly submitted a motion calling for legislation to restrict excessive packaging of commodities.

In some product categories, packaging materials have become increasingly upscale, with precious wood, metal, silk, and leather appearing frequently, and even pure silver, pure gold, and crystal products being used. Against analytical data showing a packaging recovery rate of less than 20%, the resource waste is evident.

For Shanghai, the most urgent harm from excessive packaging is the disposal of garbage and waste. As a mega-city with a highly dense population and scarce land resources, Shanghai generates nearly 20,000 tons of domestic garbage and waste daily, mostly handled by landfill. Existing landfill sites are increasingly saturated, and nearby residents have repeatedly complained about odors and pollution. Reducing garbage and waste at the source has become an inevitable choice for urban operations and management in Shanghai, making restrictions on excessive packaging a natural part of that agenda.

At the Municipal People's Congress in January this year, deputies jointly submitted a motion requiring legislation to restrict excessive packaging. Before that, the Standing Committee of the Municipal People's Congress had formed a working team and launched legislative research. In February this year, restricting excessive packaging was listed as a formal legislative item by the Standing Committee. Shanghai's legislation on this issue is now on the verge of being introduced.

Although the room for local legislation is limited, positive results can still be achieved by taking a long-term view, adapting to local conditions, using existing legal resources, and giving full play to a guiding role. Research and breakthroughs can currently focus on the following areas:

1. Expand the space for local legislation by stipulating reductions in packaging materials.

The superior-law basis for restricting excessive packaging is relatively lacking, leaving local legislation with limited room to set legal liability and restrictive measures. By legislating on packaging material reduction, authorities can both establish suitable binding provisions—where national mandatory standards exist, setting necessary legal liability and restrictive measures within local legislative authority to implement those standards—and create space for guiding and incentive measures. Starting with packaging material reduction also makes it easier to build social consensus.

1. Achieve source control by transmitting supervision at the sales stage back to production. Shanghai is an open, large market: about 90% or more of goods in circulation come from domestic and international sources, while locally produced goods account for less than 10%. Directly constraining the production source would clearly be impractical. Supervising the sales stage has an indirect effect, but it fits Shanghai's reality, and with proper guidance, it can effectively transmit pressure to production. First, using the sales stage as a lever can create broad constraints on product packaging, including packaging for goods made in Shanghai. Second, in a market where supply exceeds demand, sales enterprises generally have more bargaining power than manufacturers; through contracts and incoming-goods inspection, they can pass restrictive requirements to producers. Third, the sales stage is close to consumers, and public oversight is an effective means for legislation to take effect.
2. Clarify departmental responsibilities to improve supervision and management. Regulation of excessive packaging in Shanghai should preferably be led by the municipal quality and technical supervision department, with whole-process supervision—meaning both production and circulation stages are managed mainly by that department. This would make supervisory responsibilities clear and work duties well defined, avoiding buck-passing caused by unclear departmental roles or management gaps arising from the practice of 'each railway police officer minding only their own section.' Operationally, product packaging involves technical standards, which fall within the quality and technical supervision department's remit. Having that department lead supervision of excessive packaging restrictions therefore makes it easier to support implementation of the regulations. At the same time, the corresponding duties and coordination responsibilities of other relevant departments—such as industry and commerce, food and drug administration, development and reform, commerce, economic information technology, environmental protection, and landscaping and city appearance—must also be clarified.

Beyond regulation and constraint, laws and regulations also play a very important guiding and steering role. Because guiding provisions leave relatively more room for local legislation, legislation restricting excessive packaging should fully value and expand the use of guiding provisions and incentive measures. For example, incentive measures for packaging recovery can mobilize manufacturers and sellers; institutional design can encourage enterprises to prioritize renewable and recyclable packaging materials; and enterprises can be encouraged to disclose packaging recycling/reuse and packaging cost information on product packaging. Among guiding provisions, the role of industry associations is particularly important.

As early as the mid-1990s, relevant industry associations in Shanghai took proactive action against excessive mooncake packaging and introduced industry standards, which played an important role in standardizing mooncake packaging in Shanghai. It is therefore necessary for legislation to define the position of industry associations in restricting excessive packaging and reducing packaging materials; to encourage and support them in setting packaging material standards higher than national or local standards and in guiding and promoting those standards among relevant enterprises; and to encourage and support them in organizing certification of simplified packaging within their industries under government guidance.

Source note: China Packaging Network (pack.cn); original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-362065.html