Resources, Conservation & Recycling 144 (2019) 137–143

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Resources, Conservation & Recycling

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Full length article

Post-consumer packaging waste from express delivery in China T

a,⁎,1 a,1 b c b,d,⁎
Huabo Duan , Guanghan Song , Shen Qu , Xiaobin Dong , Ming Xu
a
School of Civil Engineering, Shenzhen University, 518060, Shenzhen, China
b
School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-1041, USA
c
State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China
d
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-2125, USA

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Express delivery plays a vital role in modern economy, but also brings great concern on post-consumer
Express delivery packaging waste. This study is therefore designed to characterize the material flows and environmental im-
Packaging waste plications of post-consumer packaging waste from express delivery in China. While express delivery packaging
Contaminant uses mainly recycled materials, post-consumer packaging wastes are only partially recycled in China. In addi-
Health impact
tion, plastic packaging materials are mainly produced from recycled agricultural films and contain chemical
MFA
residues from pesticide applications which may have significant health impacts on employees and consumers in
the express delivery industry. Policy suggestions are provided for government, express delivery service provi-
ders, and consumers to mitigate environmental impacts of post-consumer packaging waste from China’s
booming express delivery industry.

1. Introduction
Online retail is one of the fastest growing industries worldwide,
especially in developing countries. In 2017, online retail sales in China
reached $1.1 trillion (National Bureau of Statistic of China (NBSC,
2018), more than the on-line sales volumes in the US and UK combined
(Deloitte Research China (DRC, 2017). The booming growth of China’s
online retail has also propelled the boom of a connected, subsequent or
concomitant business—express delivery. In 2017, China’s express de-
livery market recorded over 40 billion orders (over 100 million parcels
each day, up by 28% from last year) (State Post Bureau of China (SPBC,
2018), which are approximately half of the total number of parcels
shipped worldwide (Loesche, 2017). A business-as-usual projection
estimates 70 billion express delivery packages per year by 2020 (Fig. 1).
Currently the majority of express delivery in China happens in high-
populated, developed regions such as Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River
Delta, and Beijing area (State Post Bureau of China (SPBC, 2018).
Therefore, this projection represents a lower bound estimation, given
that less developed regions in China are expected to generate additional
online retail demand―thus express delivery―with a growing economy
and improved infrastructure.
Actually, express delivery sector has kept rapid growth in many
countries. The cost of global express delivery, excluding pickup, line-
haul, and sorting, amounts to approximately EUR 70 billion, with
China, Germany, and the US accounting for more than 40% of the
market. It is forecasted that deliveries volumes in Germany and the US
could double over the next ten years (till 2025), reaching roughly 5
billion and 25 billion parcels per year respectively (Joerss et al., 2016).
Despite the convenience it brings to consumers, online shopping is set
to become more popular in the future creating an increasing need to
address transportation emissions that derive from this trend. Weideli
(2013) estimated and compared the carbon footprint of the shopping
process through ten consumer buying behaviors. Recent study from the
University of California addresses the environmental impact of online
shopping, indicating that speed deliveries have a heavier carbon foot-
print than slower ones (Nguyen, 2018). Stolaroff et al. (2018) con-
ducted a scenario analysis for road and drone delivery to compare
impacts among drones and traditional delivery methods and indicated
that the life-cycle carbon emissions of package delivery by small drone
are lower than ground-based delivery. Yi et al. (2017) used life cycle
assessment approach to examine the environmental impacts and energy
consumption of delivery packages (separate packaging material) used
for express purposes.
Meanwhile, express delivery also comes with significant environ-
mental problems caused by various packaging materials. For example,
Fan et al. (2017) estimated the environmental load of express packa-
ging materials consumed in China, and the results indicated that the
express delivery industry would become a serious burden on China's

⁎
Corresponding authors at: School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1041, USA.
E-mail addresses: huabo@szu.edu.cn (H. Duan), mingxu@umich.edu (M. Xu).
1
These authors have equal contributions.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2019.01.037
Received 15 November 2018; Received in revised form 10 January 2019; Accepted 21 January 2019
0921-3449/ © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
H. Duan et al.
Fig. 1. Total volume of express delivery packages and weight of packaging
wastes from 1996 to 2020 in China.
Data sources: The quantity (by pieces) of deliveries is from the official statistics
data by National Bureau of Statistics of China and State Post Bureau of China.
The weight of deliveries is based on our own estimates (The one-time standard
deviation is depicted as error bars with 67% confidence interval). Dash lines are
predicted.
environment by using life cycle assessment approach. Zhang et al.
(2016) has conducted a qualitative analysis on China’s environmental
threats of internet shopping packaging wastes, and then put forward
some suggestions for relevant stakeholders. In addition, Dong and Hua
(2018) has predicted the intention of express packaging waste recycling
behavior based on data collected from a questionnaire in China.
Actually, each express delivery order requires multiple packaging
materials, including corrugated and paperboard boxes, plastic and
woven bags, taps, polystyrene foams, and air-bubble blister stuffing. For
example, express parcel paper & board waste does contain polyvinyl
chloride (PVC), mostly originating from sticky tapes. While many
packaging materials such as corrugated boxes can be recycled or re-
used, the majority of packaging wastes from express delivery end up in
municipal solid waste (MSW) streams destined for landfilling or in-
cineration or are simply being dumped without proper treatment. Given
that many packaging wastes contain non-degradable materials such as
PVC plastic, polyethylene plastic, expanded polystyrene plastic, polye-
ster plastic, and so on, inadequate treatment of packaging waste can
lead to significant environmental implications (Rochman, 2013; Li
et al., 2016). For example, many packaging wastes do contain PVC
plastic, and this is indeed an issue for the plastic recycling industries:
the paper mills and the waste incinerators, the non-degradability of
PVC is the least of their worries. It is the non-sale-ability of plastic
fractions with PVC, the emissions and corrosion under thermal treat-
ment. Almost all currently used plastic materials are non-degradable
and this mostly an issue on landfill sites, as road-side litter and in plastic
soup.
While reports on environmental impacts of booming express de-
livery in China have increasingly appeared in literature and news
media, no rigorous estimates exist for the amount, variety, and en-
vironmental impacts of packaging waste generated by China’s express
delivery industry.
In this work, the volume, variety, and end-of-life (EoL) treatments of
packaging waste generated from express delivery in China from 1996 to
2017 is estimated. Both searching publically available statistics data
and field surveys were conducted to obtain these estimates. In addition,
the increase in packaging waste from express delivery to 2020 is pre-
dicted (State Post Bureau of China (SPBC, 2017). Lacking information
on future recycling infrastructure for packaging waste, our projection
represents a business-as-usual scenario. Moreover, environmental im-
pacts associated with overall life for plastic packaging waste has been
qualitatively evaluated.
2. Method and materials
Dynamic material flow analysis (MFA) for quanfying and predicting
138
Resources, Conservation & Recycling 144 (2019) 137–143
post-consumer packaging waste from express delivery involves the
following steps:
STEP 1: Determine the delivery quantity (pieces) of express delivery
in a given year (n). The total amount of delivered parcels in a given year
were derived from the sum of the amount of inter-city express parcels
and the amount of the intra-city express parcels:
Dn = Dc, n + Du, n (1)
where Dn represents the total delivery quantity in a given year; c stands
for the inter-city express service, and u indicates intra-city express
service.
Forecasted data (from 2018 to 2020) were obtained from ‘The
National 13th Five-Year Plan for Express Delivery Sector’ released by State
Post Bureau in China (SPBC) in 2017.
STEP 2: Determine the unit weight of various packaging material
contained in each type of express delivery packages. Then sum them up
to arrive at the total weight of each type of packaging material and all
scrap packaging materials for a given year:
Wm, n = ∑ ∑ ∑ Qm,t,j*Dn*fi
t j i (2)
Wn = ∑ Wm,n
m (3)
where Wm, n represents the total weight of each type of packaging ma-
terials (m); Wn indicates the total weight of all scrap packaging mate-
rials; Qm, t , j (unit weight, by kg/piece) means the weight of each type of
packaging material, considering the sizes represented by j (large,
middle and small packages with various weight per piece) and the types
of different packages (t); and fi stands for the fractions of different
packages for various type (i) of express service (c or u).
STEP 3: Calculate the EoL flows for different packaging materials
(reused, recycled and co-disposed in MSW stream) by weight:
Em, n = ∑ Wm,n *Rm,k
k (4)
where Em, n means the EoL flows for each type packaging materials and
Rk indicates the proporations of their various EoL flows.
2.1. Field survey and data collection
1) Quantity of express delivery orders: Data were retrieved from various
official statistics (see Table 1). Data include the quantity (pieces),
number of intra- and inter-city deliveries, domestic and interna-
tional deliveries, and their trading volumes in monetary values. In
this study, international deliveries were excluded due to the data
unavailability.
2) EoL stage (see Table S1): Gathering a sample size of approximately
10,000 electronic order slips showing delivery origin and destina-
tion to determine the transportation mode and distance of delivered
mails and parcels. In addition, this study conducted field in-
vestigations in distribution centers, which distributed (or collected)
packages to (or from) consumers, to understand the types, unit
weights, and contents of external packaging materials with ap-
proximately 700 mails and parcels. Eight MSW collection centers in
Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Taiyuan were investigated to characterize
the collection rate for post-consumer packaging materials and fur-
ther recycling and treatment activities.
3) Environmental impacts of packaging materials: Potentials environ-
mental impacts (qualitative observations) from the manufacturing
and recycling of various packaging materials are also drawn from
field investigations (shown in Table S1).
2.2. Model uncertainties
The shares of packaging materials, and their weights and recycling
H. Duan et al. Resources, Conservation & Recycling 144 (2019) 137–143

Note: In terms of National Standard for express sector -“Express service- Part 1 to 3: Basic terminology, Organization requirements, and Service procedures (GB/T 27917-2011), Express delivery means the delivery of both
intra-city and inter-city consumer packages, mainly including express deliveries from E-commerce to Customer (on-line shopping, B2C), and Customer to Customer (C2C). Business to Business (industrial products
rates have large uncertainties according to our investigations. Proper

1996-2007: delivery quantity (by pieces) from statistic reports released by National Bureau of Statistics of

2018-2020: Projection data from Chinese express industry planning in the National 13th Five-Year Plan of
2008-2017: delivery quantity (by pieces) from statistic reports released by National Post Bureau of China.

Field surveys conducted between 2016 and 2017 (Table S2) to determine the types (t) of express delivery
considering the diversities of mateirals (m) and sizes (j) of packages (large, middle, and small), their
distributions for a few parameters have been determined by using the
Fit function of Crystal Ball software. Details can be found in SI. Monte
Carlo (MC) simulation was conducted to capture uncertainties asso-
ciated with these parameters by using MS office (excel spreadsheet).
However, bottom-up data (e.g., number of deliveries, weights of
packaging material use) and additional field surveys with broader
geographical coverage on post-consumer packaging material collection
rates and further treatment pathways can help reduce such un-
certainties and improve the robustness of results.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Quantifying the packaging waste

In 2017, over 40 billion pieces of packages and parcels were de-

corresponding weights (Q) and EoL flows ( f ) .

livered in China (State Post Bureau of China (SPBC, 2018). Our survey
(Fig. 2) shows that 46.5% of these deliveries used corrugated boxes,
followed by plastic bags (30.4%), mixed packages (corrugated boxes
covered by plastic bags, 10.1%), envelopes (5.0%), polystyrene foamed
boxes (4.2%), and woven bags (2.8%).
It was estimated that 7.8 million metric tons (MMT) (one-time
standard deviation: 0.5) of packaging waste were generated in 2017
from the 40 billion packages or parcels delivered in China. This is
equivalent to approximately 4.1% ( ± 0.3%) of China’s total MSW
generation in 2017, or the total MSW generation of some countries such
as the Netherlands, Malaysia, and Algeria in 2016 (Hoornweg and
Sources

China.
China.

Bhada-Tata, 2012). Fig. 3 shows that 6.7 MMT out of the total 7.8 MMT
(86%) packaging waste generated in 2017 were scrap corrugated pa-
pers (boxes) and only 0.28 MMT (3.6%) were plastic materials. Speci-
pieces
Unit

fically, 97% (by weight) of the plastics used in packaging were mainly
kg

from recycled polyethylene materials, only a small fraction came from

Symbol

virgin materials in terms of surveys on relevant stakeholders (See Table

Qm, t , j
Dc,

Du

S1) and laboratory analysis (FTIR analysis of plastic packaging mate-

fi

rials in SI).

3.2. Characterize the flow of packaging waste

Types (and sizes) of different express delivery packages, the use of various

In general, packaging materials used in express delivery can be

delivering and transportation) are out of scope for study due to the data unavailability.
packaging materials, their corresponding weights and EoL flows

categorized into either paper-based streams or plastic-based streams.

Paper-based streams include corrugated papers, envelopes, and order
slip, while plastic-based streams include plastic bags, woven bags,
foamed plastic boxes, tapes (adhesive), void fill materials such as
polystyrene foams, and air-bubble blister stuffing. This study further
examines the material flows of corrugated boxes and plastic bags given
their dominance in packaging materials used in express delivery in
China. Fig. 4 shows that recycled materials all together contribute to
approximately 95% of corrugated boxes used in China’s express de-
livery. Despite the high utilization of recycled materials, the recycling
Inter- and intra-city deliveries

rate of corrugated boxes used in express delivery is modest. In terms of

our surveys, approximately 5–15% of discarded corrugated boxes from
express delivery in China are mixed in MSW stream for incineration
(16%), landfilling (32%), or direct dumping (3%) (National Bureau of
B2C and C2C;

Statistic of China (NBSC, 2018). Majority of the rest are mainly recycled
by informal recyclers. Note that 40–45% of materials used to produce
corrugated boxes for express delivery are scrap papers imported from
other countries, mostly developed countries (Sun, 2015). The recent
ban on selected foreign wastes by the Chinese government targets un-
Annual number of deliveries

sorted scrap papers (Walker, 2018). As a result, on one hand, the supply
for scrap papers to produce corrugated boxes in China will be sig-
EoL characteristics

nificantly disrupted in the short run. But in the long run, increasing the
recycling rate for domestic scrap boxes from express delivery can make
Data sources.

up the void left from the foreign waste ban. One the other hand, it is
Variable

necessary to further evaluate on that whether it will be enough to cover

Table 1

the needs if all packaging waste gets recycled? More importantly, are
there already collection and sorting capacities existing in China, that

139
H. Duan et al.
Fig. 2. Estimated composition of express delivery packages and parcels in China in 2017.
*corrugated boxes covered by plastic bags.
Fig. 3. Packaging waste generated from express delivery in China in 2017.
*include other paper materials such as paper tube packaging (28 t) and paper-
based packaging tape core (29 t). The one-time standard deviation is depicted
as error bars with 67% confidence interval.
would enable efficient recycling in this way? If not, additional invest-
ments should be taken into consideration.
Unlike corrugated boxes, almost all plastic wastes from China’s
express delivery industry are mixed with other MSWs for landfilling
(63%) and incineration (30%) (National Bureau of Statistic of China
(NBSC, 2018), with about 7% being directly dumped. The lack of re-
cycling activity for packaging plastics is mainly due to the relatively
high cost of separation and transport and the relatively low value of
recycled plastics. Similar to corrugated boxes, plastic bags used for
express delivery are predominately produced from recycled plastics
(95%), with 95% from domestic sources (Fig. 5). Although China’s re-
cent ban on foreign waste also includes waste plastics, the supply of
recycled waste plastics for producing plastic bags used in express de-
livery will not be significantly affected.
Notably, the majority of recycled plastics used to produce plastic
bags for express delivery packaging in China comes from the recycled
polyethylene film in agriculture sector - using polyethylene, polyester,
phthalate esters and other plastic films in agricultural mulching and
greenhouses in terms of surveys (Table S1) and related literature (Yan
et al., 2014; World Bank Group (WB, 2017). In China, agricultural
140
Resources, Conservation & Recycling 144 (2019) 137–143
practices use large amounts of pesticides and cause significant con-
tamination in soil, surface water and groundwater. For example, or-
ganochlorine pesticides (OCPs) have been found to be the primary or-
ganic contaminant in agricultural soils in China (Niu et al., 2016; Sun
et al., 2018); phthalic acid esters (PAEs), a class of chemicals that are
widely used as plasticizers) are also commonly found as major soil
contaminants (World Bank Group (WB, 2017). Potentially, pesticide
residues from agricultural uses can be transferred to the express de-
livery industry through the remanufacturing of plastic bags from re-
cycled plastics used in the agriculture sector. Such risk is particularly
large in China because waste plastics used in agriculture are largely
handled through informal recycling. Informal recyclers normally do not
have proper protection to prevent exposure to pesticide residues and
cleaning procedures to remove contaminants from recycled plastics
(our survey, Table S2). Contaminants transferred from agricultural
plastic waste can be harmful for express delivery workers and con-
sumers through direct exposure. Landfilling waste plastics from express
delivery in turn contaminates the soil. Although the causal relationship
between farmland contamination and toxicity risks of packaging plas-
tics seems to be plausible, little evidence has been provided in the lit-
erature, which represents an interesting future research avenue.
While there is still great challenge to reduce and recycle packaging
materials (including the promotion of biodegradable materials) facing
developed countries (Rossi et al., 2015; Tencati et al., 2016; Ferreira
et al., 2017b), there is relatively little work to look at and examine the
environmental impact of express delivery packaging materials. Because
hardly any low-value or low-quality recycled plastic is used in this
sector, as in many other packaging purposes (Williams et al., 2018).
There are rigid regulations to use clean but high-quality packaging
materials for express delivery service and other sectors (Ferreira et al.,
2017a; Williams et al., 2018).
4. Conclusions and policy implications
Our study provides the first estimate of packaging waste from the
express delivery industry in China. Both paper-based and plastic-based
packaging materials used in express delivery are mainly from recycled
materials. However, recycling of the EoL packaging materials can be
improved. Currently less than 40% of the paper-based packaging ma-
terials are recycled and almost no plastic-based materials are recycled.
Moreover, plastic packaging materials are mainly produced from re-
cycled agricultural films and contain chemical residues from pesticide
H. Duan et al.
Fig. 4. Flows of corrugated boxes in China’s express delivery industry in 2017 (by weight).
applications which may have significant health impacts on employees
and consumers in the express delivery lifecycle.
Government, express delivery service providers, and consumers can
respectively play important role in enhancing the circular economy of
packaging materials in China’s express delivery industry.
• First, government should consider developing policies similar to the
extended producer responsibility (EPR) to incentivize express de-
livery service providers to recycle post-consumer packaging waste.
EPR extends the producer’s responsibility for its products beyond
the use phase to the EoL (Spicer and Johnson, 2004; Subramanian
et al., 2009). Under EPR, producers are responsible for recycling and
properly treating and disposing post-consumer waste generated
from their products. However, in express delivery industry, it is
express delivery service providers which directly interact with
consumers, rather than the “producer” of packaging materials.
Therefore, an ERP-like policy for packaging materials in express
delivery needs to extend the responsibility of express delivery ser-
vice providers—extended service-provider responsibility—to in-
centivize them to explore ways to improve the recycling of post-
consumer packaging materials. At the same time, government
should also consider including recyclability as a criterion in industry
standards for packaging products used in express delivery. Current
standards implemented by the Chinese government do not consider
environmental sustainability for packaging products (Liu and Liu,
2015; Hao et al., 2019).
• Second, express delivery service providers, especially large
141
Resources, Conservation & Recycling 144 (2019) 137–143
companies with significant market shares, need to go beyond com-
pliance with existing legal and regulatory standards to take on their
social responsibilities (Piecyk and Björklund, 2015). They could
voluntarily take an “extended service-provider responsibility” for
packaging products they use. Using a life cycle thinking (Badurdeen
et al., 2009; Hellweg and Canals, 2014), they can push manu-
facturers to implement eco-design strategies to design packaging
products for improved sustainability. Packaging products need to be
designed for easy disassembly and recycling (Donnelly et al., 2006;
Knight and Jenkins, 2009). Single-use corrugated boxes and plastic
bags should be replaced by alternatives that can be used multiple
times. Business model innovations also need to be explored to de-
velop appropriate solutions to implement recycling of packaging
materials in the marketplace (Tong et al., 2018). In the short term,
these actions may come with increased cost for express delivery
service providers; but in the long term corporate social responsi-
bility would lead to comparative advantages in a highly competitive
market (Porter and Kramer, 2006).
• Finally, public awareness needs to be raised with respect to en-
vironmental consequences of post-consumer packaging materials to
encourage consumers and communities to sort domestic waste and
separate packaging waste from other waste streams for recycling.
Waste sorting and recycling facilities need to be available in re-
sidential neighborhoods and commercial buildings.
Beyond recycling of post-consumer packaging materials, our study
also reveals a potential health threat to employees in the express
H. Duan et al.
Fig. 5. Flows of plastic bags in China’s express delivery industry in 2017 (by weight).
delivery industry due to direct exposures to plastic packaging materials
which are made primarily from recycled agricultural plastic films
containing harmful chemical residues from pesticide use. To the best of
our knowledge, no study has been done to test chemical residues in
plastic packaging materials used in China and evaluate the health risk
to express delivery workers. Given that express delivery employees
generally receive below average compensation and health care cov-
erage comparing with other urban residents in China, their exposures to
harmful chemical residues in plastic packaging materials may lead to
significant environmental justice issues in future. Further study to
evaluate the employee health risk from plastic packaging materials is
urgently needed.
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the Scientific Research Fund of
Introduced High Talent of Shenzhen University (827-000044). The
authors thank the editor and three anonymous reviewers for their
constructive suggestions, from which this manuscript has benefited
considerably.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary material related to this article can be found, in the
online version, at doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2019.01.
037.
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Resources, Conservation & Recycling 144 (2019) 137–143
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