Plastic Lives Trapped in Excessive Packaging

Foodthink Says

Once again, the 618 Shopping Festival is here. After the thrill of “buy, buy, buy; unwrap, unwrap, unwrap”, have you stopped to think about where all the plastic packaging we sweep out the door is headed?

“Eating Well” means not only nourishing ourselves properly but also protecting the earth’s ecosystem – only then can we truly achieve physical and mental wellbeing. In this edition of “Eat Something Good”, many readers shared their grievances about excessive plastic packaging on food, along with tips on recycling and cutting down on plastic use.

Some people say that waste incineration plants are now short of waste to burn – so is there any point in worrying about plastic waste? In reality, the shortage of waste to burn is not because waste output has dropped – it is because China’s incineration capacity has surged so dramatically that waste is now in short supply.

Besides, whether plastic packaging is binned and sent to a landfill or incinerator, or scatters into the mountains and seas and finds its way back to our dinner tables via the food chain, it does enormous harm to both people and nature. So ultimately, we must reduce plastic consumption at source.

For a long time, the “throwaway” lifestyle has locked humanity and plastic in a “toxic yet impossible-to-quit relationship”. Our daily lives are saturated with excessive plastic packaging, which clings to food and proliferates uncontrollably. Faced with layer upon layer of plastic wrapped around takeaways, vegetables and pastries, people feel disgusted or angry, but more often simply baffled and lost for words: “All this surplus plastic was never what I wanted – so why is it still here?”

Plastic Takeaways, Plastic Lives

Takeaways have become the very foundation of our daily lives. Yet China’s nearly 100 million takeaway orders a day also generate a staggering volume of plastic packaging waste. Moreover, research shows that takeaway containers used for hot food release perfluorinated compounds and microplastics at temperatures above 65°C, causing vascular endothelial damage. The severity of the plastic packaging problem in the takeaway sector may far exceed what we imagine.

@卷宝 (F, 24, Tianjin): My closest daily encounter with plastic is the moment I unwrap a takeaway. First I wrestle the plastic bag open, then pry off the container lid, and finally tear through the wrapper on the disposable cutlery. When I ladle soup with the flimsy plastic spoon, I can actually smell the plastic. On my way out, if I spot a pile of takeaway packaging dumped by the door, a wave of revulsion rises – as though my life really is this “plastic” through and through.

🟠 Piles of takeaway waste by the door have become an extremely common sight in urban life. Source: Foodthink

@叹息的复读机 (M, 37, Daqing): Even though I clearly ticked “no cutlery” when placing my takeaway order, they still send some. Please actually read the customer’s request! Stop blindly sending low-quality disposable cutlery wrapped up in plastic bags.

@山竹 (F, 39, Kaifeng): Takeaway packaging is far more elaborate than what a regular restaurant uses when you ask them to box up your meal. The food goes into a plastic container, gets wrapped in cling film to stop the sauce leaking, then gets enclosed in a plastic bag on the outside.

@lmt (M, 29): For breakfast, I love ordering egg-stuffed flatbread from a certain takeaway – it’s absolutely delicious. But every time I see my flatbread, which could have gone straight into a paper bag, shoved inside an extra plastic bag, it feels so wrong –as wrong as wearing a jacket underneath a short-sleeved shirt. I get that adding a plastic bag reassures customers the food hasn’t been contaminated during delivery, but why not just seal it up neatly in a paper bag?

@北极熊 (F, 36, Jinhua): The disposable gloves and little sauce pots that come with takeaways are simply rampant.

The Plastic Waste Behind the Shopping Frenzy

The 618 Shopping Festival is upon us again. After all the “buy, buy, buy; receive, receive, receive; unwrap, unwrap, unwrap”, all that’s left is “throw, throw, throw”. Clear adhesive tape, air-column cushions, plastic bags and other packaging materials are mostly sent to landfill. Their primary raw material is polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which takes over a century to break down.

@Yanan (F, 42, Beijing): To prevent breakage in transit, boxes of cooking oil or glass-bottle products ordered online are often stuffed with air-column cushions – perhaps sellers could use fewer of them.

@LTT (F, 30, Beijing): When you buy things on e-commerce platforms, long-distance shipping inevitably means lots of plastic packaging – bubble mailers for shock absorption, clear adhesive tape, and so on. If you eat local and buy local, cutting down on transit, plastic packaging would naturally decrease as well.

@白日梦: I ordered strawberries from a livestream shop, and when I unpacked them just now, I peeled back six layers – they piled up all over the floor. I understand that strawberries are delicate and easily bruised, but isn’t that too many layers of packaging? They taste wonderful, but unwrapping them left me with a nagging sense of guilt about how environmentally unfriendly it all was. I won’t be buying strawberries online again when they have to be shipped as individual small parcels.

The Endless Matryoshka of Gift Box Packaging

Mooncakes, zongzi (sticky rice parcels), and tea gift boxes are the worst offenders when it comes to excessive packaging. The designs multiply endlessly in ingenuity; sellers and buyers tacitly treat this “exquisite” wrapping as a symbol of premium quality and value, and no one is willing to point out the emperor’s new clothes.

@黄小猫 (M, 30, Beijing): There’s a wonderful Gongju chrysanthemum tea – each flower comes in three layers of packaging: a bottom box, a top box, and a tiny plastic bag. The individual chrysanthemum blooms are laid out like pressed specimens in a collection.

@花花 (F, Xi’an): Buy a box of mooncakes these days and you’ll find the packaging is like a set of matryoshka dolls: a carrier bag – the mooncake gift box – plastic dividers inside the box – an individual cardboard box per mooncake – individual plastic wrapping – tiny plastic compartments for each one. All this plastic packaging is bound to cause environmental pollution, and it only drives the price of mooncakes ever higher.

@志超 (M, 38, Beijing, founder of the “Postman’s Slow Post” initiative): Mooncakes come in a big box, the box holds little wrapped portions, and inside each portion there’s a tray… or perhaps the tray is inside the little wrapper.

🟠 Mooncakes these days: packaging ever more exquisite, prices ever higher, taste ever more disappointing. Source: AliExpress

@wxy: From April 2017 to November 2019, I worked at a food company. One year, I persuaded the product manager to try slimming down the packaging on a bestselling mooncake gift box – and sales plummeted. By the eve of the Mid-Autumn Festival, we had no choice but to dismantle the outer packaging and sell the individual mooncakes loose. A large share of mooncake gift box purchases come from companies buying them for employee benefits and client appreciation – there’s a strong demand for a presentable, “valuable” look, so even if you knock money off the price, buyers still won’t go for it…

The Cucumber Trapped in Cling Film

In recent years, the excessive plastic packaging of fresh produce has been growing ever worse. Fruit, vegetables and meat from many supermarkets and fresh-food platforms must be placed into plastic containers, sealed with cling film, and slipped into plastic bags – consumers are not even given the chance to say no.

@Yawen (F, 36, Beijing): Online vegetable delivery platforms like Freshippo and Dingdong, as well as some premium supermarkets, often pre-package their vegetables in plastic containers sealed with cling film, divided into individual portions. Perhaps it’s to improve their shelf appeal, or to avoid the need for weighing and reduce the waste caused by customers picking through the produce. But given the sheer daily volume of goods these platforms move, who can fathom how much plastic waste this generates. These platforms are genuinely convenient, so it’s hard to break free from them – you can only hope for more environmentally friendly packaging materials and smarter packaging design. Take the strawberries in the photo, for example: surely there could be a more minimalist approach to the packaging.

@山竹 (F, 39, Kaifeng): When I go to the morning market to buy groceries, every single item I pick up comes with a plastic bag. Every morning I haul home loads of vegetables, meat, and eggs, all wrapped in plastic.

@LTT (F, 30, Beijing): Fruit is definitely the worst offender when it comes to packaging, though the situation varies from one fruit to another. Strawberries are always wrapped in layer after layer – plastic film, plastic boxes, and bubble wrap; every non-recyclable material imaginable is thrown into the mix. Apples, pears, watermelons and durians, on the other hand, are a little more “hardy”. Citrus fruits used to come with barely any plastic wrapping at all, but now each fruit is increasingly sealed in its own little plastic bag.

This is a display of “Cuimi kumquats” I spotted at a supermarket in Beijing. Each one is tiny, yet every single fruit appears to have been individually shrink-wrapped as though it were a “Dragon Ball”. Look across the display and all you see is a shimmering sea of plastic. I later spotted Cuimi kumquats again at another supermarket – new packaging this time: wrapped in gold, foil-like paper, still the same tiny little fruit. Placed in a gift box, it looks like a coffee capsule, like green mandarin Pu’er tea, like any premium item you’d expect to find in a gift box – and yet there is no way you’d guess it’s a kumquat.

@志超 (M, 38, Beijing, founder of the “Postman’s Slow Post” initiative): When you buy groceries at the supermarket, the price label has to go on the bag, so every item ends up in a plastic bag. And then there are these Cuimi kumquats I spotted while browsing the supermarket – each one individually wrapped in a tiny bag, then sealed inside a plastic container under cling film.

@吴晓歪 (F, 44, Xiamen, creator of the “Zero Waste Event Guide”): I now cook two-thirds of my meals at home and eat out for the remaining third, but I mainly rely on Sam’s Club and Pupu’s for groceries forward warehouse, so inevitably there will be some plastic bags, plastic packaging for fresh produce, and insulated bags and ice packs for frozen goods.

@紫菜蛋花汤 (F): When I shop at the supermarket, I’m always puzzled as to why perfectly good cucumbers must be placed in a plastic container and then wrapped in cling film. You might not encounter this at the wet market, but virtually every large fresh-food supermarket does it. What exactly is the reasoning behind this?

@北极熊 (F, 36, Jinhua): On the odd day when I don’t have time to shop for groceries, I order through Dingdong online, and every vegetable, cut of meat, or portion of seafood arrives wrapped in so much plastic. Some of it is necessary, some isn’t – I feel there should be better biodegradable solutions, such as using paper-based materials for sorting or packaging.

@吴晓歪 (F, 44, Xiamen, creator of the “Zero Waste Event Guide”): I just received a pack of broccoli from Sam’s Club today – three heads, each living in its own “single room”, and those plastic containers are rather thick, really! As a former chain fresh-food supermarket employee, I can understand that to minimise product damage, some plastic container packaging is indeed unavoidable, but the containers Sam’s Club uses are excessively thick across the board.

Snacks Dressed in Layer After Layer

At some point, it became trendy – those small, individually wrapped snacks that look exquisitely designed and can be opened one at a time, whenever the mood strikes to eat. Do consumers genuinely enjoy such elaborate packaging, or is it merely a toxic culture born from snack brands scrambling to differentiate themselves?

@志超 (M, 38, Beijing, founder of the “Postman’s Slow Post” initiative): I never imagined in a million years that one day, when I tore open a packet of instant noodles, the block of noodles inside would be sealed in yet another layer of plastic shrink-wrap.

@北极熊 (F, 36, Jinhua): Snack packaging is all individually wrapped – far too much plastic. And the ingredient sachets in things like Luosifen are absurdly numerous, to the point where I dare not buy that kind of food anymore. But making it from scratch seems just as impossible, since I can’t source so many different small-quantity ingredients.

@kly: Individually wrapped packaging is common enough. If it’s used for foods like coffee and tea that genuinely call for small, portable sachets, then at least I can understand it – but why would dried jujubes need to be individually wrapped, just a handful at a time?

Do You Have “Plastic Packaging Hoarding Syndrome”?

Some people – many older folks in particular – like to save plastic packaging for reuse down the line. But since it piles up faster than they can get through it, many joke that they’ve developed “Plastic Packaging Hoarding Syndrome”. Yet if you consider tossing plastics into the bin, letting them end up in a landfill or an incinerator, and turning a blind eye to the potential consequences – which of those responses is truly more of a disorder?

@芫茜 (F, 35, Dongguan): In an ideal world, I’d keep what’s still usable, send what can be recycled for recycling, and look for other uses for what can’t. The reality? My rooms are now crammed with plastic waste…

@芋泥波波 (F, 31, Zhengzhou): I remember as a child, my mum and aunties were always teasing my grandmother about her “habit” of hoarding carrier bags. Every time those crumpled, twisted-up plastic bags were swept out of the house, I secretly enjoyed it. But now, running my own little household, I’ve somehow ended up hoarding a lot too – always thinking I’ll need them one day. In the end, though, they always get binned the moment I’m feeling frazzled.

@北极熊 (F, 36, Jinhua): I collect plastic bags for reuse, make eco-enzymes from mineral water bottles, or wash them and sort them properly before taking them to the waste station. I also collect cardboard, so that people who make a living collecting scrap can better repurpose them.

@Stella (F): I just folded up a loaf bag. I used to bring my own bread bag to the bakery, but I noticed that most loaves already come in their own bags, so sometimes I choose to buy bread that isn’t pre-packaged.

The day before yesterday, my office colleagues went out for Haidilao, and after they packed up the fruit, I washed the takeaway containers and kept them. Really clean containers – PP5, too. The takeaway containers we’d previously used in the office are also PP5; I washed those clean as well. The plastic tubs from other fruits and pastries I’ve bought – I wash them and set them aside. I genuinely can’t bear to throw them away.

In my old office I’d saved up so many of these, but my colleagues said they’d be a nightmare to shift during the move, so we ended up tipping them all into the bin. I hope the cleaning lady took them for scrap, at least. My family can’t understand why I collect these containers either – I truly cannot bear to toss them. But when I go out shopping, so many things already come in a box or a bag, so all I can do is try my hardest to pick items with no packaging at all.

@雨轩 (F, Beijing): I reuse whatever I can, whether it’s sending parcels or picking up deliveries. When online shopping orders or products arrive over-packaged, I give the seller feedback and suggest they not go overboard with packaging. But honestly, a lot of the time I just throw it away.

@Yawen (F, 36, Beijing): I collect the outer bags from food deliveries and all sorts of plastic bags and reuse them – usually as bin liners, so I no longer need to buy separate bin bags. I use reusable plastic containers in place of single-use plastic bags – for instance, when I buy meat and need to portion it out into single-serving amounts to freeze. The cling bags supermarkets provide for separating produce are quite sturdy, so I save those too and use them for kitchen waste. In short, when it’s simply impossible to go plastic-free, I try to get every last use out of whatever plastic I do have, maximising how many times each item gets used.

Discover Plastic Waste Recycling Points Near You

For individuals, saved-up plastic packaging is indeed hard to recycle effectively. But if we channel surplus packaging through centralised recycling points towards larger-scale commercial or public use, perhaps we can improve recycling efficiency. Do you know of any recycling points near you? Please share in the comments.

@Beijing Organic Farmers Market (Beijing): At the farmers market, we continuously collect clean, sturdy, reusable secondhand packaging – spare carrier bags, cardboard boxes, polystyrene boxes, and the like – as well as egg trays and fruit protectors sold by the market’s farmers. If you have spare yarn or knitted items at home, you’re welcome to bring them to the market: we donate them to the Knitting Revival Group, who knit warm clothing for children in the Tibetan regions.

@wxy: My previous role involved packaging design and procurement for the company’s own-brand products. At the time, loyal customers would contact us saying they had saved up a pile of egg cartons and plastic containers from fruit and veg – all washed and stacked – hoping we could reuse them. But food safety regulations and our company’s quality-control department meant we had to politely decline. After that, I felt that tackling plastic reduction from the corporate side was simply too hard. Every department and every role had its own KPIs, all far higher up the priority list than anything to do with cutting plastic. So I tried advocacy from the consumer side instead, starting with reducing large plastic carrier bags.

At first, I set up a shared shopping bag box at the store’s checkout, inviting customers to leave spare bags from home there, so anyone who forgot theirs could take one for free. Some people were uneasy about using someone else’s bag, after all, it would touch food. I just let those concerns go – if you don’t want to use one, you simply don’t. Later we partnered with a customer’s factory to make shopping bags from offcuts left over from baby prams, sold at zero profit, and also available to redeem with loyalty points.

🟠 Shopping bags donated by customers, available for free use. Source: wxy

@黄小猫 (M, 30, Beijing): Some post offices collect delivery packaging so they can offer it free of charge to customers sending parcels.

@志超 (M, 38, Beijing, founder of the “Postman’s Slow Post” initiative): I started an initiative called “Postman’s Slow Post”, which brings cycling enthusiasts, eco-conscious individuals, and green businesses together to co-create a zero-carbon transport circulation platform. Simply put, it’s about getting secondhand bags flowing via bike rides, making them available to businesses in need.

Join Free U Nature

Please scan the QR code on the poster below to join Free U Nature and become a Postman courier. As deliveries get ever faster and plastic waste piles up like mountains, let’s take on the climate crisis together – one bicycle wheel and one round of reuse at a time.

Through the Postman’s Slow Post initiative, we’ve gathered the following businesses that currently accept secondhand bags. We’re sharing them here:

➊ Jishi (Lixiang branch): Unit N20, Fenghuanghui Lixiang Commercial Street (daily, 10:00–22:00)

➋ Beijing Organic Farmers Market at Shangri-La Hotel: Below Building 29, Zizhuyuan Road, Zizhu Bridge, West Third Ring Road (Saturdays, 9:00–12:00)

➌ Beijing Organic Farmers Market at Lecheng Center: No. 22, East Third Ring Road Central (Sundays, 10:00–13:00)

➍ Guanshe: B1, South District, Guanshe, Liangmaqiao (Saturdays and Sundays, 12:00–18:00)

➎ ShanTao Xueyan Building Branch, Beijing: Unit 103, Building B, Xueyan Building, No. 33 Shuangqing Road, Haidian (10:00–19:00)

➏ China World Hotel: Common areas / Liandongchang reception / Aimer Sport (daily, 9:00–21:00)

➐ San Tu Secondhand Circular Shop: 2nd Floor, Building 19, Beixiao Street, Chaoyangmen (daily, 10:00–21:00)

➑ Xingye Shop: Xinzhuang Village, Changping (daily, 8:00–20:00)

➒ Baixing Convenience: Xiayuan Village, Changping (daily, 8:00–20:00)

@吴晓歪 (F, 44, Xiamen, creator of the “Zero Waste Event Guide”): Every community waste-sorting station in my city has a large polystyrene recycling bin made of metal mesh. The collected polystyrene is taken to the waste-sorting education centre near the community, where a dedicated machine compresses it into blocks before sending it on to recycling factories. Clean plastic packaging can be placed in the smart recycling bin for paid recycling, while dirty takeaway containers, plastic film, and courier bags go into the recyclables bin and are sent to the low-value recyclables sorting centre.

@三个毛: I keep certain takeaway containers and the plastic packaging from supermarket fruit and veg to use as storage boxes, or slip them under plant pots to catch water – the size fits perfectly. I’ve only just learnt how to poke holes in milk tea cups with a screwdriver and turn them into plant pots. Buying flat-pack furniture always comes with extra screwdrivers, so you just heat the tip over a flame and press through.

@刘lifang (Shanghai): ShanTao Charity Shop once held an event: swap a bag for a book – plastic bags excluded. I traded some non-woven fabric bags and walked away with several books.

Handy Tips for Cutting Back on Plastic

Recycling is only one solution for dealing with plastic waste. Given that plastic itself is extremely difficult to decompose, even disposal via landfill or incineration can contaminate groundwater, release greenhouse gases, and give off toxic substances. We still need to fundamentally reduce our use of plastic.

@LTT (F, 30, Beijing): I bring my own thermos or travel mug; I bring my own insulated lunch box for takeaway; I use cloth bags when shopping; I eat less takeaway food.

@北极熊 (F, 36, Jinhua): I take an eco-bag to the market for fresh produce, order less takeaway, and try to buy foods in glass jars or cardboard packaging.

@芫茜 (F, 35, Dongguan): I cook at home, bring my own containers, cutlery, and water bottle when eating out, and carry my own bags for grocery shopping. I’ve cut back on snacks and try not to buy things unless I truly need them. Sometimes, when I visit another city, I even pack jars and bottles just to visit the loose-goods stores.

@北京有机农夫市集 (Beijing): Our market community shop has set up a “Loose Goods Section”– everyone is welcome to bring their own containers to buy in bulk! In the sweltering summer heat, why not pick up some loose red beans, mung beans, dried lily bulb, dried white fungus, and yellow rock sugar to make a refreshing, cooling sweet soup.

@雨轩 (F, Beijing): I eat at home as much as possible, shop less, bring my own containers – like a glass lunch box – when buying food on the go, refuse disposable cutlery when eating out, and add a note to takeout orders requesting no packaging.

You can also play the role of watchdog and report businesses in breach of the rules: for example, if a restaurant flouts regulations on disposable tableware, ring the street-level comprehensive law enforcement team – they’ll be round to inspect and correct the issue in no time. There should be a reference list of various types of violation and the corresponding hotlines – disposable tableware issues, public pollution, private-sector pollution – spread widely online so that the public can more easily exercise oversight.

@Yawen (F, 36, Beijing): I use silicone bowl covers instead of cling film; I bring my own shopping bag to the supermarket and skip the paid plastic bags; I try to avoid disposable face wipes, disposable underwear, and other single-use items.

@摆脱塑缚 (Guangzhou): If you’re keen to find out about solutions for a life free of single-use plastic, come along to this fun, plastic-reducing “Eco Reuse Day” market! You’ll get to try out circular coffee cups, professional sports-equipment repair, bring-your-own-container shopping, secondhand swaps of old items, and more green-living ideas. Together with the many stallholders, you can find a sustainable lifestyle that suits you.

Thanks to all the readers who shared their tips above. We’ll pick five lucky readers to send gifts to, and invite one more to join us for lunch at the Foodthink office. If you too have gripes about excessive plastic packaging, please leave a comment below. And feel free to forward the reuse and plastic-reduction methods mentioned in this article to friends around you. Let’s work together to break our unhealthy dependence on plastic and make our way towards a “Zero Waste Planet”.

Planner: Kairui

Editor: Yuyang