On December 25th, the State Post Bureau held a regular press conference for the fourth quarter to introduce the situation of the green and low-carbon development of the postal industry during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the electronic shipping labels and reusable transfer bags across the entire industry have been basically covered. The packaging standardization rate has reached 86%. The number of packaging layers and the thickness of packaging bags have been reduced by more than half, the width of the tape has been reduced by 25%, the consumption of consumables by the intelligent packing algorithm has been reduced by nearly 20%, and the proportion of using recycled packaging in same-city express deliveries has reached 10%. The annual recycling and reuse of cardboard boxes has exceeded 800 million pieces. The level of green, reduction, and recyclability of express packaging has continued to improve.
Lin Hu, the director of the Market Supervision Department of the State Post Bureau, said, "During the '14th Five-Year Plan' period, the industry's regulations, standards and policies have become more comprehensive, and the top-level design system has gradually been improved. Three regulations, 15 standards and 9 policies have been promoted to be in line with the green concept. A set of system featuring 'complementary laws and regulations and departmental rules, connection between national standards and industry standards, and coordination of central policies and local policies' has basically been formed. The packaging of express deliveries has improved, and the governance efficiency of the 'four modernizations' has continued to increase. New technologies in express packaging and new scenarios for recycling and reuse have emerged continuously. Reducing-weighted tapes and 'slim face' delivery labels, etc., have been widely used as low-consumption packaging. Four enterprises, namely, China Post, JD, SF Express and Yunda Express, have piloted the application of recycled packaging in over 20 cities for scenarios such as fresh food cold chain and government documents. The empowerment of technology has become stronger, and green and low-carbon development has been steadily advanced. The total area of photovoltaic installations in the entire industry is 4.48 million square meters. More than 4,300 high-speed security inspection machines have been equipped. The number of green distribution centers exceeds 1,000 and the number of green outlets exceeds 12,500. The number of electric vehicles and clean energy vehicles exceeds 75,000.
Lin Hu pointed out that the postal industry has achieved full-chain carbon reduction through technological innovation, model optimization, and green management, by coordinating efforts at the four key nodes of collection, transfer, transportation, and delivery. In the collection stage, carbon emissions have been reduced through source reduction of packaging and green alternatives; in the transfer stage, energy consumption structure has been optimized through green intelligent facilities; in the transportation stage, low-carbon efficiency has been enhanced through the dual drive of "new energy + multimodal transportation"; in the delivery stage, carbon emissions at the end have been reduced through unmanned technologies and intelligent algorithms. In the future, the industry will continue to deepen technological innovation empowerment, applying big data, blockchain, visualization, and intelligent technologies, strengthening cooperation and sharing of infrastructure and service networks in transportation, warehousing, sorting, and delivery, to achieve full-chain logistics carbon footprint management and promote collaborative carbon reduction in the supply chain. Promote integrated carbon reduction in green buildings, intelligent equipment, automatic sorting, photovoltaic power generation, new energy vehicles, low-altitude delivery, and green packaging.
Lin Hu stated that the management of express delivery packaging is a systematic project, which requires adhering to a systematic approach and problem-oriented thinking, and promoting coordination among upstream and downstream entities as well as comprehensive chain governance. In recent years, the State Post Bureau has actively encouraged participation from multiple parties and strengthened collaborative governance, achieving phased results. In the future, it will continue to deepen multi-party collaborative governance, further strengthen departmental coordination, establish and improve information sharing, joint law enforcement and other working mechanisms; further promote the role of industry associations as a link, encourage enterprises to collaborate with upstream and downstream to build a green supply chain; further strengthen publicity and guidance, and promote the achievements of express packaging management to be tangible, accessible and usable by the people.
The "Interim Regulations on Express Delivery" (revised in 2025) will come into effect on June 1, 2025. This regulation focuses on the management of express delivery packaging, promoting the greening, reduction, and recyclability of express delivery packaging, and encouraging express delivery companies and senders to use environmentally friendly packaging materials that are biodegradable and reusable.
