(Photo/Xinhua)

China's rising consumption of parcel packaging as a result of the expansion of its express delivery industry is posing an urgent threat to the country regarding over-consumption of resources and severe environmental pollution, said a report on the green development of the sector issued at the recent 2019 China Last Mile Conference.

"To promote green development in the express industry is a responsibility of all enterprises in the sector," Liu Jun, deputy director of China's State Post Bureau (SPB) said during the conference.

Liu introduced that the industry is straining to tackle the environmental issue caused by packaging and has made initial steps in recycling.

Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com demonstrated a smart delivery box at the conference, made using high-nanometer material. The box is equipped with GPS and RFID (radio-frequency identification) devices, and can be opened by QR-code scanning and voice recognition. Not only is the box reusable, but it can also better guarantee the safety and transparency of deliveries.

In April, express company BEST Inc. started an environmental plan to promote the use of an environment-friendly plastic bag called Nbag. It is estimated that these innovative plastic bags can cut 900 tons of plastic consumption per year and 903 tons of greenhouse gasses, equivalent to the volume absorbed by 50,000 trees per year.

To promote the green development of the delivery industry, a series of enterprises such as China Post, SF Express and JD.com have all set up research labs in the hope of finding green packaging solutions. A new packaging plan adopted by SF Express has reduced the volume of cartons by 115 tons, poly-woven bags by 80 tons and bubble wrap by 500 tons.

Around 10,000 waste sorting devices have been installed at postal service stations across the country, and 20,000 new energy vehicles are now running deliveries for express enterprises, Liu introduced.

Starting from the beginning of this year, SPB has launched a "9571" project that aims to apply digital waybills to 95 percent of courier deliveries, stop using secondary packaging for over 50 percent of products sold on e-commerce platforms, increase the usage rate of recyclable transit bags to 70 percent, and offer recycling devices at 10,000 postal service stations across the country.