The 2025 two sessions proposed: ban the use of single-use plastic products in the takeaway and retail industries

On February 20, the 2025 National "Two Sessions" Proposal Exchange Meeting, guided by the Party Branch of the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (hereinafter referred to as the "China Green Development Council" and provided academic support by the scientific journal "Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development", was held in Beijing. The suggestions of the Green Society Project Department are now shared as follows:
 
　　Plastic waste has become one of the important environmental problems facing the world, which will have an irreversible impact on the ecological environment. Disposable plastic products used in large quantities in the takeaway industry and retail industry, such as plastic bags and plastic lunch boxes, constitute serious "white pollution". These plastic products are difficult to degrade in the natural environment, and long-term accumulation can damage soil structure, pollute water sources, and affect ecological balance. At the same time, incineration of these plastic products will produce toxic and harmful soot and gases, causing pollution to the atmospheric environment, which in turn affects human health Although China began to implement the "plastic restriction order" as early as 2008 and issued a new "plastic restriction order" in 2020, the implementation of the takeaway and retail industries is not satisfactory, whether offline or online, and even exponentially increased. Therefore, effective measures must be taken to ban the use of single-use plastic products in the takeaway and retail industries.
 
　　Since 2015, China's takeaway industry has begun to show explosive growth, and the market size of the online catering takeaway industry has reached 1,525.4 billion yuan in 2023, and it is expected that the scale will further increase in the future, which will inevitably lead to a sharp increase in the consumption of takeaway plastic packaging. According to the "Research Report on the Environmental Impact and Recycling of Packaging Plastics in the Takeaway Industry (2021)", in the five years from 2015 to 2020, the plastic consumed (discarded) in China through mainstream Internet food delivery platforms increased by 10 times. The total consumption of single-use plastics in the food delivery industry is expected to increase to 2.5 million tons by 2025 ("Delineating the Environmental Impact and Policy Effectiveness of China's Food Delivery Industry"). In addition, the recycling rate of takeaway plastic packaging in China is low. In 2020, China's export plastic packaging consumption was 574,000 tons, with an average recycling rate of only 23.3%.

The retail industry is one of the important areas of plastic pollution sources in China. From the perspective of consumption structure, China's retail industry accounts for 87.7% of the consumption of disposable plastic products, accounting for absolute dominance. Although China has implemented a plastic restriction order, supermarkets no longer provide plastic shopping bags free of charge, but still use disposable plastic fresh-keeping bags to package food, which can be said to have not fundamentally reduced the use of plastic bags, and even weakened the social responsibility of supermarkets for plastic pollution control. According to the statistics of the Plastic Recycling Professional Committee of the China Plastics Association, China uses about 3 billion plastic bags every day, of which 1 billion are used for grocery shopping alone, with an annual consumption of more than 4 million tons. Studies have shown that the recycling rate of single-use plastic waste in China's retail industry is only about 29%, mainly including hard packaging, while plastic shopping bags are almost completely unrecyclable, and most of them are incinerated, landfilled or leaked into the environment.
 
　　This unrecycled plastic waste will eventually enter the environment in the form of macro, micro and nanoplastics, polluting soil, water bodies and even glaciers, disrupting ecosystem balance, leading to biodiversity loss, exacerbating climate change, and threatening human health, causing immeasurable losses to society and the economy.
 
　　2025 is an extremely critical year in the process of plastic pollution control in China, the final year of the "14th Five-Year Plan for Plastic Pollution Control", and the opening year of the "15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030)". Therefore, the following specific suggestions are put forward for prohibiting the use of single-use plastic products in the takeaway and retail industries:
 
　　01 Strengthen the construction of policies and regulations
 
　　The government should introduce a special policy to ban the use of single-use plastic products in the takeaway and retail industry as soon as possible, and clarify the timetable, scope and specific measures for the ban. Revise and improve relevant laws and regulations, and include the prohibition of the use of single-use plastic products in the legal framework to provide a strong basis for law enforcement.
 
　　02 Actively promote alternative products
 
　　The takeaway and retail industries are encouraged to use degradable and reusable packaging materials, such as paper packaging, cloth packaging, etc., to reduce reliance on single-use plastic products. Encourage the takeaway and retail industries to use reusable tableware, such as stainless steel, ceramic, biomass, and other materials, and establish corresponding recycling mechanisms.
 
　　03 Strengthen industry self-discipline and supervision
 
　　The takeaway and retail industry should bear its own social responsibility for plastic pollution control and strictly abide by the national regulations on prohibiting and restricting the use of disposable plastic products. Relevant departments should strengthen the supervision of the market and severely punish the illegal use of disposable plastic products.
 
　　04 Enhance public awareness of environmental protection
 
　　Strengthen environmental protection publicity and education through various channels such as the media and the Internet, raise public awareness of the dangers of disposable plastic products, encourage consumers to choose environmentally friendly packaging and reusable tableware, and practice the concept of green consumption.