Where do all the takeout boxes you throw away go?

In recent years, it has become a daily habit for many people to order takeaway. The blowout development of the food delivery industry has provided convenience for everyone, but at the same time, a large amount of food delivery garbage has also had a non-negligible impact on the environment.

Some policy on Disposable Plastic Products has been implemented recently in China, requiring food delivery platforms and food delivery companies to regularly report the use and recycling of disposable plastic products. But what is the current status of plastic waste generated by ordering food, and is it convenient to recycle? Here are top three problems about disposable packaging caused by take away.

01

Large quantity, difficult to clean up…

Many roadside trash cans contain takeaway garbage, and some of them carry leftovers, which adds a lot of workload to sanitation workers.

The trash cans in office buildings are also the hardest hit areas for takeaway garbage: after lunch, all kinds of takeaway garbage appear concentratedly. Most of the discarded takeaway waste is plastic lunch boxes.

However, in the recyclable trash cans of the garbage sorting stations in residential areas, there is actually no takeaway garbage. After residents dumped takeaway leftovers into kitchen waste, all kinds of packaging were thrown into other garbage.

A community garbage sorting instructor said that except for paper packaging, other plastic garbage in the takeaway garbage is not cared about. The main reason is that it is dirty. “There is oil in the lunch box, and it drips everywhere. Generally, the bosses of buying stations don’t want it.”

According to a recycler at a domestic waste collection point, they only buy a white transparent polypropylene lunch box with the PP logo. The purchase price of one kilogram is 1.8 yuan. “Not only does it need to be cleaned up, but at least three to five kilograms must be collected at a time, that is, a hundred and ten pieces can be weighed.”

It is not easy to distinguish and clean out this kind of lunch box among all kinds of takeaway garbage. The reporter visited and found that most of the plastic waste generated by takeaways was imported into other waste and eventually incinerated.

02

Plastic tableware should be reduced, and excessive packaging should be avoided for takeaway

• Plastic lunch boxes are difficult to replace

At present, the alternative materials for plastics are mainly paper materials and degradable plastics. It turns out that some Western food and cold fresh food use more paper lunch boxes, and most Chinese catering companies still use traditional plastic lunch boxes.

In addition, degradable disposable straws have gradually become popular, but degradable lunch boxes are rare. According to experts, degradable plastics have problems such as poor heat resistance and mechanical properties, and high sales prices, which lead to low market acceptance of lunch boxes. The takeaway industry reduces plastic from the source, first of all to reduce some unnecessary disposable plastic consumption.

• Excessive Packaging

It is observed that many chain catering merchants use beautifully printed non-woven bags for their take-out packaging bags. Most of these heavy, reusable packages are discarded directly after a meal.

Experts said that non-woven fabrics also contain plastic components. Eliminating excessive packaging requires the joint efforts of regulatory authorities and food delivery platforms. “For example, the regulatory department stipulates that the packaging should not exceed two or three layers; food delivery platform companies can formulate platform rules that encourage merchants on the platform to reduce the use of single-use plastic packaging.”

As of December 2022, the number of takeaway users in Chinese market has increased to 520 million.

The report shows that the order volume of China’s mainstream Internet food delivery platforms has increased from 1.7 billion orders in 2015 to 17.12 billion orders in 2020, and the consumption (waste) of plastics has increased from 57,000 tons in 2015 to 574,000 tons in 2020. There is no official statistics on how much takeaway plastic waste is recycled each year.

On June 20, the “Administrative Measures for the Use and Reporting of Disposable Plastic Products by Business Operators” jointly formulated by the Ministry of Commerce and the National Development and Reform Commission was officially implemented.

• Catering operators should reasonably choose alternative products or compliant disposable plastic products when providing packaged or takeaway services;
• The operators of commodity retail establishments, e-commerce platforms (including food delivery platforms) and food delivery companies shall report on the use and recycling of disposable plastic products every six months.

03

“Plastic Reduction” still needs “Plastic Picking”

Experts said that the best way to effectively control the problem of plastic pollution from takeaway garbage is recycling and utilization.

At the beginning of this year, Shenzhen, Guangdong launched a pilot project for sorting and recycling takeaway packaging waste from commercial office buildings.

In the pilot office building, a special trash bin for “take-out packaging waste” was added – after the employees dumped the food waste from the take-out into the kitchen waste bin, the take-out packaging was collected separately and sent for recycling. At present, it has covered 86 commercial office buildings in Shenzhen, and nearly 1,000 kilograms of takeaway lunch boxes are recycled every day.

In July 2020, Xiamen, Fujian Province revised the “Guiding Catalog of Low-value-added Recyclables for Domestic Garbage in Xiamen City”, stipulating that takeaway lunch boxes are included in low-value recyclables and are no longer regarded as other garbage.

In the pilot community, the plastic lunch boxes, tableware and plastic bags in the residents’ takeaways will be recycled centrally and transported to the country’s first low-value recyclable sorting center in Haicang District, Xiamen City. No need for manual sorting, all enter the intelligent sorting platform. Since the sorting center officially reached its capacity in April this year, the low-value recyclables sorted can reach 50 tons per day.

In May of this year, a food delivery platform released the “Green Packaging Solution for Food Delivery”, which provides recyclable, degradable or reusable packaging solutions for six major categories of cakes, coffee, and light food.

Experts said that this plan is only a recommendation and guidance plan, and relevant departments should coordinate different platforms to make simultaneous efforts to urge takeaway merchants on the platforms to speed up the upgrade of green packaging.

At the same time, to reduce take-out plastic pollution, consumer participation is particularly important. Don’t throw away lunch box garbage at will during outings, consciously classify garbage, try to dine in as much as possible or choose “no tableware” when eating, etc., will all contribute to the protection of the environment.