Plastic cities: Can China overcome its addiction to plastics?

18 April 2022

By Oliver Lai

In the 14th "five-year plan" released in March 2021, China said it would improve its plastic recycling and incineration facilities, promote "green" plastic goods and combat the issue of overpackaging. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the state’s top planning agency, stated that China would revamp "the entire chain of plastic pollution control". This involves cutting out “unreasonable” plastic packaging in the retail industry and increasing urban incineration rates from 580,000t/day in 2020 to 800,000t/day by 2025. The government also said it would promote the use of biodegradable plastic and other environmentally-friendly products such as wood and bamboo.

With more than 60 million tonnes of plastic produced each year, China has to reduce plastic production and increase its recycling rate to achieve the aforementioned targets. Currently, the recycling rate in China is approximately 30%. To tackle this issue, major cities have introduced mandatory regulations on waste categorisation in an attempt to boost recycling rates. For example, people in Shanghai are required to categorise waste into four different categories - wet waste, hazardous waste, residual waste, and recyclable waste. Failure to comply can result in fines and deductions of “public credit” for individuals, while companies could even have their operating qualifications revoked if serious violations were found. The harsh penalties coupled with intensive government promotion have resulted in an immediate increase in recycling, with the average daily amount of recyclables increasing by 10% four weeks into the new policy.

However, not all policies have been a success. Apart from setting stricter regulations, the government has banned restaurants and online shops from providing single-use plastic, such as straws and non-degradable shopping bags. While large supermarket chains have successfully adapted to the new policies, smaller local shops have lagged behind in the adoption of biodegradable alternatives due to the much higher cost involved. For reference, a single-use plastic bag costs CNY 2 cents, while a biodegradable one costs 20 cents. This is why plastic remains widely in use in roadside stalls, shops and even smaller chains. To address the uneven progress in the country, we believe stricter enforcement and financial incentives are needed to “nudge” SMEs into complying with the new environmental policies. Moreover, the Chinese biodegradable plastics industry needs to be aggressively expanded before it can cope with the skyrocketing demand for biodegradable alternatives in the coming years. By expanding domestic production capacity for biodegradable plastics, the cost of these eco-friendly storage solutions can be reduced, lowering the financial hurdle for local shops and small chains to make the switch.

To tackle the issue of plastic pollution in a more comprehensive manner, there must be coordination between the government and the private sector. In particular, we believe efforts must be made to redesign the unsustainable production chain of China’s blossoming e-commerce industry. China, as the world’s largest e-commerce market, accounts for more than 50% of online retail sales worldwide. Behind the success of the flourishing e-commerce industry lies an ugly truth: the overuse of plastic packaging. This can be understood by a comparison between conventional and online modes of shopping: in the past, people collected their items directly from the shop after their purchase, which meant there was less reliance on plastic packaging. Now, an additional process of shipping the item is involved, and in order to ensure safe transportation, the parcel must be wrapped securely with plastic. This results in a soaring amount of new plastic, with packaging waste surging by 800% in the last two years. Not only does this add to China’s carbon footprint (due to increased emissions from incineration), thus hindering the country’s progress in achieving its climate goals, but it also has the potential to cause serious pollution and endanger the health of both humans and animals in our ecosystem.

To reduce plastic waste, urgent measures must be implemented to regulate the fast-changing e-commerce industry. For example, the government can mandate the substitution of plastic packaging with biodegradable alternatives, while injecting subsidies into the industry to help smaller businesses make the transition. On a community level, designated recycling points for plastic packaging from online shopping can be set up to make it more convenient for online shoppers to dispose of their recyclables properly. Moving forward, China’s policies must not only motivate people to recycle but also encourage them to use less plastic packaging in the first place. For example, regulators can designate a bottom limit to the number of items a customer must purchase before they can be given an extra plastic parcel, which encourages source reduction. In the US, similar private sector adoptions have contributed to a reduction of plastic packaging amid the pandemic: reusable “shipping pouches” were used for online apparel orders; and instead of new boxes, reusable containers were adopted to transport returned items from “return hubs”, where the customer dropped off their item, back to the company’s warehouse. These are all initiatives that can be born out of public-private cooperation in China.

In its recent report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that inaction has put us firmly on track toward an unlivable world. If global warming cannot be kept within 2C this century, the frequency of natural disasters such as flash floods, extreme heat and longer-burning wildfires will further increase, rendering the Earth increasingly uninhabitable. With the rapid expansion of China’s economy as well as continued commodification of the world more generally, the amount of plastic waste generated will only surge. We strongly believe that drastic action must be taken now, before it becomes too late for humanity as a whole. So in the future, when you get your fresh new sneakers from Taobao or Amazon, do remember to think twice before clicking the checkout button!