The success story of delivery services needs to be retold
There was a time, not too long ago, when doctors and attorneys were known to make good money. They still do but now add "delivery person" to that list as well.
A few months ago, a news story made waves in the media. The headline read: Chen Si, a 25-year-old deliveryman, earned nearly a million yuan in just three years. The attention-grabbing headline went beyond mere clickbait; it was a true story.
Chen's ability to operate on only four hours of sleep per night left many people amazed. Some people expressed their frustration with Shanghai's challenging job market. Regrettably, only a small number of people were aware of the significant environmental consequences of adopting food delivery as a lifestyle.
The growing food delivery sector has benefits and drawbacks. It enhances the quality of urban life by enhancing convenience and effectiveness, while also stimulating economic growth. However, it also poses a challenge to waste management due to increased household waste and plastic pollution.
In 2008, shops in Shanghai began charging for plastic bags following the implementation of the "Plastic Bags Ban" policy, but express packing bags, foam boxes and disposable lunchboxes are still available.
Plastic manufacturing materials have a significant environmental impact due to their frequent failure to undergo timely recycling. This leads to their non-biodegradability, persistence in landfills, air pollution from burning, and the release of harmful chemicals into the environment.
It is imperative that we promptly assess the environmental consequences of failing to recycle plastics.
Shanghai typically manages most domestic waste by either sending it to landfills or incinerating it. Polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene foam are the materials used to make food delivery containers. Production of these materials results in the release of a staggering 1.3 billion metric tons of CO2 into the environment. Incinerating plastics without recycling can release harmful chemicals and substances, leading to a detrimental impact on the environment.
Some may argue that since they do not see greenhouse gases daily, they do not exist. So, let's calculate this environmental bill more intuitively.
Chen meticulously collected data on 4,031 individual takeout orders for one month. Meituan's official estimate shows a substantial increase in the number of independent riders for 2022, reaching an impressive 6.24 million. This excludes any outsourced riders.
Assuming that each takeaway takes one plastic bag, and each bag covers an area of 0.06 square meters, the total surface area occupied by plastic bags in a month would amount to 1.5 billion square meters. This is roughly equivalent to the size of 7,943 Shanghai Stadiums.
With just one delivery person from one company adding to this huge amount of plastic waste in one month, imagine the overall plastic waste bill for a year! The word "astronomical" suddenly feels so small.
It is crucial, therefore, for us to adopt responsible and environmentally conscious practices to mitigate the impact of plastic waste.
Residents of a neighborhood in Xuhui District, Shanghai, sort household garbage.
In 2020, Shanghai introduced a three-tier recycling network called the "point yard" system, indicating a move toward a more localized and community-oriented approach.
Shanghai residents benefit from comprehensive recycling facilities through a network of over 15,000 collection points, 198 transfer stations and 15 sorting centers. This infrastructure promotes an environmentally conscious mindset among the residents.
As someone born and raised in Shanghai, it pains me to admit that I was completely oblivious to the existence of this system, even though there is a plastic recycling transfer station about a kilometer away from my house.
To be ecologically responsible citizens, we must take the initiative and become familiar with policies that promote greenhouse gas emissions reduction and climate change prevention. The system does not run by itself.
In 2019, when the government imposed home waste sorting, every neighborhood followed the rules without exception. This demonstrates the power of the system we developed after residents were fully informed about their responsibilities.
The public's strong environmental consciousness should drive the push for green development, with local governments taking responsibility for implementing legislation and supporting the goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050.
If Shanghai can successfully implement household waste sorting in 2019, then this bustling city surely has the capability to effectively handle plastic waste.
(The author is a freshman student at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The views are her own.)
