As China’s express delivery sector continues to grow, the environmental impact of the industry is becoming harder to ignore. Zhong Shi joins me now with a look at exactly how much trash is generated and the heavy toll it takes on the environment.

Q1. People may not think twice about throwing away the empty box when they get a package. But considering that much of the packaging remains unrecycled, maybe they should. Give us a sense of the gravity of the problem.

A1. You’re right. It’s a problem that simply cannot go unnoticed any more. Statistics show that in the first quarter of this year, China’s express delivery business has grown over 40 percent. That comes after the sector saw over 20 billion packages being sent last year. That’s roughly 15 packages for every Chinese person. That translates into a huge environmental burden.

Let’s say a box weighs 0.2 kilos. Well, that means about 4 mln tons of packaging waste like boxes, plastic bags, tape and so on is generated by deliver businesses every year. It is estimated that the tape used in the packaging each year could wrap around the world's equator several hundred times.

However, a closer look at the packaging reveals that it is excessive in most cases. There are times when more careful packaging is justified to transport fragile items, but other times, online retailers simply hope it impresses shoppers and entices a positive comment on the web page.

Q2. That’s a staggering amount of trash if those boxes simply end up in the garbage bins. Do people recycle at all?

A2. Not really. Most of the empty boxes and bags are simply tossed away and find their way into garbage incinerators. Some of them are buried. The cheap chemicals they’re made of often mean that that’re non-degradable. Burning and burying them poses a serious threat to the environment.

Package boxes actually have better potential to be recycled and reused. One ton of waste paper, if properly recycled, can generate 0.8 tons of recycled paper. That’s a savings of about 17 trees. The root of the problem is that, aside from helping the environment, neither delivery companies or consumers have an incentive to recycle. And there is no specific industry regulation on the packaging material, meaning businesses are free to choose what saves them most money.

However, there are signs that some industry leaders are working to change that. Alibaba’s logistics network Cainiao is working on what it terms “green logistics”, or using only environmentally friendly boxes, bags and even delivery trucks. It’ a small but desperately needed step in the right direction.