The rise of the food delivery industry has facilitated our lives, and we only need to pick up our mobile phones and move our fingers, and the food will be delivered to our door. However, there is a problem behind the convenience that cannot be ignored, and that is takeaway garbage! The takeaway industry is becoming one of the main demanders of plastic packaging, and the problem of plastic pollution in takeaway packaging is also coming.
1. Data quantification of plastic waste
1) As early as 2020, a research team from the School of Environment at Tsinghua University published a report in which researchers concluded based on an analysis of 35 million takeaway orders that the weight of plastic waste in takeaway waste in China in 2020 was about 1.6 million tons.
2) To treat the 1.6 million tons of plastic waste harmlessly, it will cost about 24500 million yuan.
3) According to relevant statistics, the average order contains 344 lunch boxes, taking the two largest takeaway platforms as an example, with a daily delivery volume of 35 million orders, each lunch box is 003 square meters calculated, then the daily production of plastic waste.
0.03*3.44*3500w=361w㎡
Equivalent to 506 football fields(Note: The size of the standard football field stipulated by FIFA is 105 meters and 68 meters, and the area is 7140 square meters).
It is equivalent to more than 5 Forbidden Cities(Note: The Forbidden City covers an area of 720,000 square meters).
4) According to **, the total consumption of single-use plastics in the food delivery industry will increase to 2.5 million tons by 2025, of which 1.4 million tons will come from metropolises.
Second, the main components of takeaway garbage
There are four common lunch box materials on the market today: polypropylene (PP) plastic, polystyrene (PS) plastic, paper and aluminum foil. The use rate of PP plastic lunch boxes exceeds 60%, and it is the most commonly used food container; Paper lunch boxes are sometimes used, but in most cases they still need to be covered with food-grade plastic film, but this will increase the difficulty of packaging; Aluminum foil lunch boxes are commonly used in hot pot, grilled fish and barbecue restaurants.
In terms of tableware, disposable wooden chopsticks are the most popular, with a usage rate of more than 90%. In terms of packaging bags, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic bags dominate, with a usage rate of about 90%, but high-end restaurants generally use kraft paper bags and white cardboard bags.
3. The treatment of takeaway garbage and the impact of each stage on the environment
The environmental impact of the manufacturing stage of takeaway packaging accounts for 45% of the environmental impact of the whole industry chain, the delivery stage accounts for only 5%, and the waste disposal stage accounts for 50%.
The environmental impact of solid waste pollution is most significant during the manufacturing phase. In addition, the manufacture of plastics requires a lot of oil, and the production of paper products requires a lot of wood, so the environmental pressure caused by resource consumption at this stage is also very prominent.
During the delivery phase, transport vehicles emit exhaust fumes, so the impact of air pollution is even more pronounced.
In the garbage disposal stage, incineration or landfill is generally chosen.
The incineration process of garbage will produce harmful gases, which will be directly dispersed into the air, which will bring certain air pollution, but incineration of garbage can also generate electricity and replace traditional thermal power generation, so waste incineration will bring certain benefits to emission reduction.
Landfills are a major environmental impact** and can be up to 5 times more impactful than incineration. The presence of food residues changes the composition and moisture content of packaging waste, amplifying the risk of leachate discharge during the landfill process, so the impact of water pollution rises to the top in the landfill process.
According to relevant data, half of the water quality of China's top ten water systems has been polluted. Forty percent of the state-controlled key lakes are polluted. Seventeen of the 31 freshwater lakes are polluted. After the lake is polluted, human beings are aiming at the sea, and the "scientific report" said that the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" has more than 80,000 tons of garbage floating in it, mainly plastic bottles, plastic bags and other plastic products, and the area of these "plastic monsters" is close to 1.6 million square kilometers, and there are also relevant agencies**, by 2050, the total weight of marine plastic garbage or surpasses fish.
In addition to the differences in different stages, the regional differences in environmental impact are also obvious, and they are not detailed here, as there is no detailed data.
4. Who pays for the environment? How to break the game
No snowflake is innocent during an avalanche, and everyone has a responsibility to protect the environment.
For the platformWhether it is the Tsingshan Plan or the Blue Planet Plan, because it is only an advocacy nature, the effect on plastic reduction is actually very limited, "It is more of a gesture and public relations effect." The platform needs to be 'real', treat large and small businesses equally, and clarify the reward and punishment mechanism. ”
For merchantsReducing and increasing the use and popularization of degradable plastics is the most direct and effective means. If you usually use 5 boxes, can you use 3 of them? If businesses can use the simplest packaging, or choose to use degradable plastics, they will solve part of the problem at the source.
In terms of intermediate linksSorting lunch boxes** will make garbage disposal easy.
For consumersYou can start from the following aspects.
1) Enhance the awareness of plastic ban and environmental protection.
2) Promote dine-in and reduce the frequency of take-out.
3) Do not use or reduce the use of disposable tableware during daily meals.
4) Re-carry cloth bags, re-lift food baskets, reuse durable shopping bags, and refuse to use disposable plastic bags.
5) Consciously participate in garbage classification.
The free pursuit of food convenience is people's yearning for a better life, but in the face of plastic pollution derived from the rapid growth of takeaway, it is time to think more about environmental protection. As the saying goes, "merit in the present and benefit in the future", practicing the covenant of not "shaping" requires all aspects of society and everyone to take action.