Suwon City, Ministry of Environment, and Distribution & Logistics Firms Join Hands to Reduce Single-Use Delivery Boxes

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Seo Dong-young] Suwon City, the Ministry of Environment, and distribution and logistics firms have joined forces to reduce single-use delivery boxes.

Suwon City, the Ministry of Environment, Lotte Mart, NS Home Shopping, Oasis Market, and Ondago (a delivery company) signed a ‘Business Agreement for the Pilot Application of Reusable Packaging’ at City Hall on the 17th, and agreed to actively cooperate to reduce transport packaging.

Under the agreement, the distribution and logistics firms pledged to make active efforts to: ▲use reusable packaging instead of single-use packaging when delivering parcels ▲participate in pilot projects to expand the use of reusable packaging and build a logistics system that uses reusable transport packaging ▲refrain from additional packaging during the sale of already-packaged products ▲and prevent excessive packaging.

For the successful establishment of the pilot project, the city will provide administrative and institutional support such as selecting project sites and consulting with local residents, and will continuously monitor the project. The government will support the packaging reduction activities of the distribution and logistics firms participating in the agreement.

The four distribution and logistics firms participating in the agreement will use reusable transport packaging when delivering goods to the Gwonseon-gu area of Suwon starting in the middle of this month.

When residents in the pilot application area order products from the online malls of the firms participating in this agreement, the goods will be delivered in reusable packaging. When consumers leave the empty packaging in front of their door, the firms collect it, wash it, and reuse it.

Using reusable packaging can dramatically reduce paper and styrofoam boxes, and ice packs used when packaging fresh food can also be recovered.

If the single-use packaging such as delivery boxes of the three distribution firms is replaced with reusable packaging, it is expected that 66 tons of packaging waste (53 tons of paper boxes and 13 tons of styrofoam) can be reduced annually across the entire Gwonseon-gu area.

Attending the agreement ceremony were Suwon Mayor Yeom Tae-young, Minister of Environment Cho Myung-rae, Lotte Mart Digital Division Head Jeong Jae-woo, NS Home Shopping CEO Cho Hang-mok, Oasis Vice President Ahn Jun-hyung, and Ondago CEO Yoon Hyung-seok.

Minister of Environment Cho Myung-rae said, “We cannot solve the waste problem without reducing single-use packaging,” and expressed hope that “the reusable logistics system will spread throughout the industry.”

Mayor Yeom Tae-young said, “As the use of parcel delivery has increased following the COVID-19 outbreak, packaging waste has increased enormously,” adding, “If reusable packaging is used, paper and styrofoam boxes can be dramatically reduced.”

He continued, “Reducing single-use items will cut waste at home, reduce our city's budget for waste disposal, and ultimately save the global environment,” and expressed hope that “reusable packaging will become an exemplary case of the ‘Green New Deal.’”

Meanwhile, after the agreement ceremony, Mayor Yeom Tae-young proposed to Minister Cho Myung-rae the ‘legislation of measures to expand the reuse of ice packs.’

Mayor Yeom Tae-young proposed: ▲making standard specifications (large, medium, and small) for ice packs mandatory by law so they can be reused ▲establishing regulations not to display company names on the exterior of packaging in order to enable shared use of ice packs ▲and making it mandatory to strengthen the durability of ice pack packaging and use eco-friendly materials.