Save for a Rainy Day—Suggestions for Fighting Internet Shopping Packaging Pollution

陳鐘涵

Nowadays in China， the internet shopping is a booming industry and is fast becoming the favorite shopping option for Chinese consumers. Undoubtedly， the online shopping is significantly contributing to Chinas economy as well as Chinese peoples life. In todays fast-paced world， shopping websites provide a variety of selections of merchandise， lower prices and excellent customer services for busy consumers who see their outdoor shopping time shortened by increased work demand. Despite its positive impacts， internet shopping is a double-edged sword.

While the online shopping brings convenience， the resulting huge amount of packaging waste has become a massive environmental problem. According to the State Post Bureau， in 2017 the postal and courier companies dealt with at least 331 million packages， up 31.5 percent from last year， which means billions of cartons， hundreds of tons of adhesive tapes， bubble bags， and other plastic packaging materials were created and discarded. That scenario would see more than 70 million trees felled， resulting in the destruction of the forest ecosystem and the ecological degradation. The low rate of recycling is exacerbating the situation， since most of the plastic materials are nonbiodegradable， so it can damage the environment for decades or even hundreds of years. The toxic materials released to the environment will also pose a high risk to our human health.

Therefore we can see that in the seeming prosperity of the online shopping， it is an environmental disaster that lurks around us. It is now time to raise the awareness of all the society and adopt measures to combat the problem. My suggestions are as follows：

Firstly， our government should formulate clear legislation on packaging industry standards and take appropriate measures to enforce the law. At present， our country has only one regulation in the packaging industry. However， it doesnt expressly stipulate what constitutes “over-packaging” and how a package should be wrapped in an environmentally friendly way. Due to the absence of clear regulation and unified industry standards， the online vendors and express delivery companies have chosen to use the non-recycled materials which are much cheaper than the eco-friendly materials and tend to overwrap their items to ensure the transportation safety of the goods.

Secondly， in addition to the legislative interventions， I suggest establishing an effective top-down recycling system with efforts from all parties. In this system， in fact， there is no rubbish， all materials can be set back into the economy. The packaging materials can be collected， recycled， and reused in the industrial chain. Meanwhile， China should also impose garbage sorting and recycling， and set garbage classification rules. The public should put packaging materials into different trash receptacles， so that they can be made into new resources. Moreover， the investment and research in environmental friendly materials should also be encouraged and supported by the government and big firms to increase the recycling efficiency. We need to develop new packaging materials that will be not only renewable， reusable， degradable， but also light， practical and cheap.

Thirdly， beyond the efforts of the public sector， the e-commerce firms and delivery companies should also introduce incentives mechanism and take on more responsibility to minimize harm to the environment. The vendors often complain that they have no choice but to overwrap the items to prevent product damage in transit and guarantee package integrity， which is critical to a their reputation on shopping websites. In fact， shopping websites can become more creative and work out more effective ways to change the situation. A platform of incentive mechanisms could be introduced， where customers could have options for the green packages， and receive credits by returning their used carton box to the online shopping firms. Then they can use the credits to buy products， have discounts， participate in draws， and so on. This would achieve the goal of recycling the packaging materials， but also increasing the shopping demand.

Ultimately， I think protecting environment is not only the responsibility of the government or the industry， but it is everyones responsibility. Our citizens， especially our young generation should be fully aware of the serious consequences of the packaging pollution， foster green consumption ethos， boycott excessive packaging of internet shopping， and join actively the recycling environmental activities. Our society has a tendency to pursue immediate profits and ignore the possible long-term hazards. I call on we stop such a tendency and save for a rainy day. We must think about the environmental protection from now on and take tangible actions at once before the environmental problems become a disaster.