Zipper boxes
E-commerce companies are trying to stem the tide. For Singles’ Day this year, Alibaba’s logistics arm Cainiao designed recyclable corrugated cardboard boxes that don’t have to be sealed with plastic tape. The company offered the packaging to more than 500 sellers on Tmall, including brands like Nestle SA and Procter & Gamble Co. The so-called zipper boxes cost twice as much as their usual packaging, but sellers that opt to use them get extra promotion on the website. Cainiao says it used 190,000 plastic-free boxes and 3 million biodegradable bags to package Singles’ Day orders this year. While that’s a step forward, it’s just a fraction of the total increase in packaging this year.
SHANGHAI • If you worry about all the waste generated by the annual rush of holiday shopping and gift giving, it is nothing compared with the mountains of discarded packaging that comes from a single event in China.
On Nov 11 each year, the world s biggest consumer market goes into overdrive as e-commerce giants like Alibaba Group Holding and JD.com lure shoppers with huge bargains during the Singles Day sale.
On its Tmall platform, transactions reached a peak when 583,000 orders were made in a single second.
All those purchases meant 675 million packages had to be delivered, a 26 per cent increase from last year.
70 Sino-Indian events as good as cancelled
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Synopsis
Delhi and Beijing had said earlier that 70 events, 35 in each country, would be held to celebrate the anniversary. It included a trip by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to China for his third informal summit.
Agencies
NEW DELHI: Celebrations planned for the 70th anniversary of India and China establishing diplomatic ties has practically being abandoned following tensions along the line of actual control and outbreak of Covid-19.
Delhi and Beijing had said earlier that 70 events, 35 in each country, would be held to celebrate the anniversary. It included a trip by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to China for his third informal summit. After the outbreak of Covid-19, which originated in Wuhan, celebrations were put on hold. Later, any chance of celebration suffered a setback following PLA’s incursions into the India in eastern Ladakh.
Biodegradables will not solve China’s plastics crisis
Beijing, China – Increased production of biodegradable plastics will not solve China’s plastics pollution crisis, a new report from Greenpeace East Asia shows. If the rush to produce biodegradable plastics continues, China’s e-commerce industry is on track to generate an estimated 5 million tonnes of biodegradable plastic waste per year by 2025 [1], the report reveals.
“Switching from one type of plastic to another cannot solve the plastics pollution crisis that we’re facing,” said Greenpeace East Asia plastics researcher Dr. Molly Zhongnan Jia. “Many biodegradable plastics require specific temperature and humidity conditions to break down, which are not found in nature. In the absence of controlled composting facilities, most biodegradable plastics end up in landfills, or worse, in rivers and the ocean.”
India says Chinese claim on cancellation of event to jointly release stamp factually incorrect
India says Chinese claim on cancellation of event to jointly release stamp factually incorrect
India said the joint release of commemorative stamps was one of the activities agreed with the Chinese side last year but there had been no discussion on any launch date with any Chinese authorities for this activity.
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UPDATED: December 12, 2020 10:36 IST
[REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE] File photo of EAM S Jaishankar and Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi (Photo Credits: PTI)
India on Friday clarified the issue of cancellation of the joint release of commemorative stamps to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between India and China. While China tried to blame India saying that the latter had not given feedback for the launch, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in New Delhi said the claim was factually incorrect .