Takeaway Packaging's Green Shift: Performance Still Matters, Sustainability Cannot Be Avoided

Ma Yong, deputy secretary-general of the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF), said in a recent media interview on takeaway packaging that his current view is somewhat pessimistic: many plastic packages are marketed as fully biodegradable, but their real-world performance does not support that claim.

The Research Report on the Environmental Impact and Recycling of Packaging Plastics in the Takeaway Industry (2021) shows that as food delivery expanded rapidly, plastic packaging consumption and discard volume climbed from 57,000 tonnes in 2015 to 574,000 tonnes in 2020—a tenfold rise over five years.

A survey linked to the Phase One Green Packaging Solutions for Food Delivery, released in May 2023 by the Meituan Tsingshan Plan and other parties, found that merchants care most about packaging performance, followed by environmental impact, appearance and cost. Merchants serving different dishes also prioritize different packaging features.

Food type shapes packaging choice. Steamed buns and dumplings, for example, need good breathability; wontons, soup noodles and rice-noodle soups often use solid-liquid separated formats; delivery distance adds insulation and cooling requirements; cakes and pastries frequently come in paper boxes, while beverages widely use plastic cups.

Even so, nearly every format still involves plastic components to some degree. That brings the focus back to recycling and degradation of the enormous volume of takeaway packaging.

In practice, where waste sorting is poorly enforced, food leftovers and plastic packaging boxes are often mixed together. Leftovers are tied or fastened inside boxes or bags and then thrown into the bin.

Ma said large amounts of plastic waste are hard to recycle effectively. During incineration or landfill, they can keep polluting water and soil and increase greenhouse gas emissions; they can also drift into the environment, be mistakenly eaten by wildlife and cause death, or eventually become microplastics that enter organisms, including human food.

He also stressed that excessive packaging is common in takeaway orders, with the added cost often passed on to consumers. Given the current level of plastic degradation technology and the huge scale of takeaway packaging, source reduction is the top priority for cutting plastic waste pollution.

Plastic pollution has become a focus of international concern, and the United Nations is advancing the development of a plastics treaty. After INC-1 was held in Uruguay in November 2022, the second session, INC-2, took place in Paris, France, from May 29 to June 2, 2023. More than 1,600 representatives from over 160 countries and more than 300 observer organizations reached a consensus to complete a first draft of the plastics treaty in November 2023 and submit it for discussion at the next meeting in Nairobi, Kenya.

Source: China Packaging Network (pack.cn); original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-379436.html.