By contrast, other types of EDPW including plastics, paper and envelopes are mixed in MSW and finally incinerated or landfilled because of their low recyclability, wasting recyclable resources and increasing the cost of waste management (Greenpeace, 2019). In the current waste management system in China, approximately 80% of the cardboard in EDPW is recycled. In 2018, 228 million tons of MSW were generated in China (IiMedia, 2020) with express delivery packaging waste (EDPW) accounting for 4.13% (Greenpeace, 2019). Accordingly, packaging waste has become a non-negligible part of municipal solid waste (MSW). The number of express delivery packages has been increasing over the years, with the total volume reaching 63.5 billion pieces in China in 2019 ((SPBC), 2020). This paper provides a comprehensive view of the environmental impacts of EDPW in waste management system and novel insights into further optimisation and development of the system from a low-carbon perspective.ĭelivery service and e-commerce have brought considerable convenience to daily shopping. Optimising these parameters can achieve a carbon reduction of 177.86 kg CO 2-eq per 1,000kg of EDPW. Global sensitivity analysis identified proportion of incineration, heat and electricity recovery ratios in incinerators and recycling ratio of cardboard as the major contributors to result uncertainty. Paper and cardboard incineration can achieve carbon reduction with biogenic-CO 2 emissions, while plastic incineration releases significant fossil-CO 2 that counteracts the savings from energy recovery. From C-footprint perspective, managing 1,000kg of EDPW would generate a load of 834.88 kg CO 2-eq from raw material production and a saving of -524.55 kg CO 2 -eq from material and energy recovery. The environmental impacts from EDPW to most impact categories are marginal, but the loads to global warming potentials and human toxicity are significant, mainly attributed to the energy and material consumption during package production. Material flow analysis reveals that 65% of the EDPW is recycled and cardboard is the dominant contributor. To quantify the impact and C-footprint reduction potential, a comprehensive life cycle assessment enhanced by parameterisation and global sensitivity analysis was conducted on Chinese EDPW systems managing fractions of cardboard, paper and envelope, foamed plastic, soft plastic and woven bag. The optimisation of EDPW systems is important to achieve low-carbon development. The rapid development of e-commerce has resulted in a large amount of express delivery package waste (EDPW).
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