Trash from packaging of online products poses threat

"People mountain, people sea" is how Chinese describe a place filled with people. But as the nation of more than 1.3 billion people increasingly shops online, casting off a huge amount of plastic bags and paper boxes, "garbage mountain, garbage sea" comes to mind.

我们经常用“人山人海”来形容一个地方挤满了人。但是随着中国这个有着13亿多人的大国网购的人数越来越多，大量的塑料袋和废纸盒产生，真是到处都是“垃圾山，垃圾海”啊。

With the country’s e-commerce increasing rapidly, its online retail and related delivery services are producing a virtual mountain of waste that adds to the country’s environmental woes.

随着我国电子商务的迅速发展，其在线零售及相关配送服务不断产生着堆积如山的垃圾，加深了国家的环境灾难。

China doesn’t have a national system to regulate the packaging of goods purchased online－from freshly cooked soup and congee to frozen seafood.

目前，我国并没有相关政策来规范网购商家的包装问题，不管是新鲜烹制的的汤粥亦或是冷冻的水产品。

Last year, with a total of 20.67 billion delivery parcels, the industry left behind 11 billion plastic bags, 9.9 billion cardboard boxes and 17 billion meters of adhesive tape, said Zhu Lei, deputy head of the Qingdao Research Center of the Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication.

北京印刷学院青岛研究院副院长朱磊说，去年中国大陆一共消耗了快递包裹206.7亿个，包括塑胶袋约110亿个、包装箱99亿个、胶带170亿米。

Zhu and his team cooperated with the State Post Bureau in 2014 to get a thorough picture of the garbage situation from courier services, and they continued research last year to estimate the amount of trash generated by the industry.

2014年朱磊和他的团队与中国邮政合作，以彻底了解快递服务产生的垃圾情况。15年他们继续预估这个行业产生的垃圾量。

"Most of the plastic bags were not biodegradable and were discarded with other household trash to be piled up, buried or burned, which posed a heavy burden of environmental pollution," Zhu said.

“大多数的塑料袋不能降解，并连同其他家庭垃圾被丢弃，堆积在一块，或深埋或焚烧，这对环境污染造成了沉重的负担，”朱说。

In 2014, the booming service industry generated about 14 billion parcels, the bureau’s data showed. If each item of packing material weighed about 0.2 kilogram, these parcels would generate 2.8 million metric tons and cover the equivalent of 200,000 soccer fields, some experts estimated.

2014年，中国邮政的数据显示，蓬勃发展的服务业产生约140亿个包裹。有专家估计，如果平均每个包装袋约重0.2千克，那么总重量将达280万吨，能覆盖20万个足球场。

Chen Jian, who has worked in recycling services for 20 years in Xi’an, Shaanxi province, voiced similar concerns over the growing pollution from the booming courier services.

西安的陈健，从事回收服务已经20年了，对蓬勃发展的快递服务产生的污染表达了同样的关切。

Every year, at least 15,000 metric tons of paper boxes are used in Xi’an, of which only 60 percent are recycled, he told a local newspaper in the city of more than 8 million people. "But the 300 tons of plastic bags were buried and burned directly in dumping grounds."

西安一共有800万人口，每年因快递产生的废纸箱至少有1.5万吨，其中被回收的仅占60%左右，陈健告诉当地一家报纸。“但有300吨的塑料袋则直接进了垃圾场被焚烧或填埋。”

The burning or dumping of such non-biodegradable plastic material could cause pollution to the surroundings, said Wei Maoquan, head of the Resource Recycling Association of Linyi, Shandong province.

对非降解的材料的焚烧或填埋可能会对周边环境造成污染，山东省临沂市资源再生协会会长魏茂泉的说。

Wei said that plastic tape, for example, contains the chemical polyvinyl chloride, which could take at least 100 years to decompose in the soil.

魏说，以塑料胶带为例，其主要成分为聚氯乙烯，填埋在土壤中需近百年方能降解。

China will encounter larger pollution pressure from the growing courier services sector. Authorities estimate that by 2020, annual parcels to be handled will reach 50 billion.

随着快递服务业的不断发展，中国将面临更大的环境压力。当局估计，到2020年，每年处理的包裹数量将达到500亿。

However, few delivery service providers have begun to use recyclable plastic and paper packaging materials.

然而，很少有送货服务提供商已经开始利用可回收塑料或纸包装材料。

Xiang Feng, CEO of Shanghai YTO Express Co, conceded that most plastic materials now used are not biodegradable.

上海圆通速递有限公司的总裁相峰承认，现在大部分使用的塑料材料都是不可降解的。

The company began pilot projects in 2014 in some areas to recycle paper and plastic materials, "but we have many difficulties in expanding the recycling system", Xiang said.

2014年，圆通公司开始推行试点项目，在部分地区回收纸制和塑料材料，“但是在扩大回收上有着很大困难”，相说。

Another major domestic online shopping service provider, yhd.com, started to collect used paper boxes from consumers, if they were in good shape, in 2014, said Liu Hongbin, the company’s vice-president.

2014年，一号店（国内一家主要的网上购物服务供应商）的副总裁刘洪斌说，如果一切发展良好，一号店会开始从客户那里收集废纸箱。

However, plastic wrapping and stuffing materials are not now on recycling services’ list.

但是目前，塑料包装材料和填充物并没有列入他们的回收服务清单。

"It would increase the cost of the delivering service providers if they collect the used materials, and the recycled ones would not make profits for them," said Zhu Lei, the Qingdao research center expert.

青岛研究中心专家朱磊说：“如果收集使用过的材料没有利益可图，这将增加送货服务供应商的成本。”

Nonetheless, he said, it is necessary to improve the recycling system, reduce excessive packaging and promote environmentally friendly packaging materials.

他说，尽管如此，完善回收体系，减少过度包装和推广环保包装材料是非常有必要的。

"It’s time to facilitate the garbage classification to make sure the dumped plastic packing bags can be dealt with properly," he added

“是时候将垃圾分类，以确保倾倒的塑料包装袋得到了妥善的处理，”他补充说。

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来源:China Daily 双语新闻爱语吧作者:文凤