China News Service, Beijing, April 19 (reporter, Li Jinlei) Nowadays, the online takeaway market is becoming more and more popular. Behind the huge order volume, there are problems of waste of resources and environmental pollution that cannot be ignored. A reporter from China News Service found that the current takeaway waste is basically in a state of no one recycling.
While enjoying the convenience of life brought by O2O industries such as online takeout, how much environmental cost people will pay, and how to achieve a win-win situation of convenience and pollution reduction, this urgently needs the attention and consideration of the society.
Little attention has been paid to the problem of takeaway waste
In recent years, online food ordering has gradually entered people’s lives, and more and more people have become accustomed to ordering takeout through mobile APP or phone to solve the problem of eating.
The China News Service reporter found that the takeaway market is becoming increasingly popular, and a large amount of catering packaging waste is also generated. Plastic or foam lunch boxes, plastic bags, disposable chopsticks, etc., constitute the main part of takeaway waste.
Wang Yan, a white-collar worker working in an Internet company in Beijing, told China News Service that the time cost of bringing meals is too high, office workers do not have so much energy to prepare, and it is too expensive to eat in restaurants outside. Now takeaway merchants have many discounts, which are generally cheaper than going to restaurants. Under such circumstances, even if you know that ordering takeout will cause some "white pollution", it is difficult to resist the temptation of cheap, convenient and fast takeout.
The large amount of takeaway garbage has caused the cleaners to complain. Yang Lan, a nearly 50-year-old cleaner, has a deep understanding of this. She told reporters that after lunch every day, the trash cans in the unit are almost full of takeaway garbage such as lunch boxes, plastic bags, and disposable chopsticks. Some lunch boxes still have leftover food and soup. It is really a headache to deal with this garbage.
"Before, there was not so much takeaway waste, but now it has increased significantly." Yang Lan told reporters from China News Service that these takeaway waste are basically not recycled and can only be disposed of as domestic waste.
"Nowadays, people’s life is very fast, and ordering takeout is for convenience, but few people may be aware of the problem of takeout waste." Mr. Shen, the deliveryman of Meituan takeaway, told China News Service that even if some customers can use chopsticks at home, they will complain because there are no chopsticks in the takeaway. "It may be that they are too lazy to wash, which also shows that people’s environmental awareness still needs to be improved."
"White pollution" is inevitable
While enjoying the convenience of ordering food online, people also have to pay for the environmental pollution problems that come with it. So, how serious is the environmental pollution caused by takeaway garbage?
Boss Zhao, who runs a Liangpi restaurant in Tiantongyuan, told reporters that his store has just opened for less than two months, and takeaway is the main source of business income. At present, 20 or 30 takeaway orders can be received every day. The cost of packaging a takeaway (1 transparent lunch box + 1 pair of chopsticks + 1 plastic bag) is about 1 yuan.
China News Service reporter noticed that the store of Boss Zhao is not large, with only four tables in the store, but the operating performance of Meituan takeaway has reached more than 500 orders per month.
In fact, the order volume of various takeaway platforms is growing rapidly, which also means that takeaway waste is also increasing. For the amount of takeaway waste, although there is no authoritative statistics at present, it can be seen from the order volume of takeaway platforms.
According to the data released by Meituan takeaway, Ele.me, Baidu takeaway, etc., the daily order volume of these three takeaway platforms is about 7 million orders, according to which a rough calculation can be made. According to the calculation of 1 plastic bag for each takeaway, each plastic bag is 0.06 square meters. The plastic bag used every day can cover 420,000 square meters, which is equivalent to about 59 football fields, and can cover a West Lake in about 15 days.
China News Service reporter noticed that, based on factors such as reducing garbage and "white pollution" and ensuring campus safety, some colleges and universities in China have introduced bans to ban takeout from entering campuses.
Data map. On April 6, 2015, in Chongqing, this is a cleaner transferring large bags of garbage to the sorting point at the stacking yard to facilitate unpacking. Jiangshang Gull, photo credit: Dongfang IC
Takeaway waste is basically not recycled
"Every time I order takeout recently, or pack it outside, I always feel guilty. It’s like creating white pollution." Ms. Jin, who works in Shenzhen, orders takeout once a week on average. She told reporters that the takeaway lunch boxes she calls are almost always packed in plastic boxes. With plastic bags and disposable chopsticks, where does all the takeaway garbage end up?
China News Service reporter found that at present, takeaway waste is generally difficult to recycle. Disposable chopsticks, plastic bags, and foam lunch boxes are basically unrecycled. Although transparent plastic lunch boxes can be recycled, the amount of recycling is also very small.
China News Service reporter consulted a number of personnel responsible for waste recycling. Master Li, who is engaged in waste recycling in Beijing Fangzhuang area, told reporters that transparent pure polypropylene (PP) plastic lunch boxes can be recycled, and the purchase price is 3 yuan/kg. Foam lunch boxes and other types of takeaway lunch boxes are basically not recycled because they are too cheap, difficult to clean and difficult to sell.
Master Liu, who is engaged in second-hand recycling in Chaoyang, Beijing, told reporters that foam lunch boxes are generally not accepted. The recycling price of transparent PP plastic lunch boxes is 2 yuan/kg, and they must be clean, not unclean. "Transparent PP plastic lunch boxes are recycled and sold to plastic processing plants, which will crush them into particles and make other plastic products."
"White foam lunch boxes are still very common in some construction sites." Zhai Qiuping, a plastics analyst at Zhuochuang Information, told China News Service that such foam lunch boxes are very cheap, a few cents each, and few people recycle them. Because cleaning is very troublesome, the recycling value is not large, and they are generally treated as landfills or incineration.
Mr. Luo, a takeaway deliveryman who has worked in the Tiantongyuan area for more than two years, told reporters that most regular restaurants currently use transparent lunch boxes, and occasionally you can see rice in foam lunch boxes. Although I have heard that transparent lunch boxes can be recycled, I have never seen anyone recycle them. Usually, no one picks up waste.
Reducing takeaway waste requires multiple efforts
Under the background that takeaway has gradually become a living habit, how to reduce takeaway waste is an issue that needs to be paid attention to by the whole society. Takeaway platforms, merchants, consumers and even the whole society should pay attention and make efforts.
"Many people around me now order takeout, and they never thought about pollution before, but now they do cause pollution." Wang Yan, a white-collar worker, suggested that efforts should be made to raise people’s awareness of environmental protection and reduce the use of disposable tableware, calling on everyone to bring their own tableware.
Mr. Shen, the deliveryman, suggested that to reduce the use of disposable lunch boxes, we can vigorously promote the use of transparent and environmentally friendly lunch boxes that can be recycled.
Some netizens have also suggested that takeaway platforms can provide some options, such as whether to bring your own chopsticks and whether bags can be recycled.
"Nowadays, when people eat takeout, the lunch box is often thrown away directly, and few people keep it for cleaning and recycling." Zhai Qiuping said that to reduce takeout waste, on the one hand, we should encourage people to order less takeout and go out to eat more. On the other hand, we should also strengthen the establishment of garbage sorting and recycling systems to turn waste into treasure. There is still a lot of work to be done in China in terms of garbage sorting and recycling.
The reporter from China News Service noticed that the outline of the "13th Five-Year Plan" announced this year has clearly stated that the use of disposable products should be restricted. Improve the recycling network of renewable resources, and strengthen the connection between the classification and recycling of domestic waste and the recycling of renewable resources.
