As the Dragon Boat Festival is approaching, a variety of zongzi (rice dumpling) products "exquisitely" packaged by various merchants will be on the market stage. Yesterday I happened to see a zongzi box with six dumplings, a large box with three layers inside and three layers outside. It also comes with small packages such as sachets and hand towels. The whole is very cumbersome and complicated.

This excessive packaging has a very bad environmental impact. At present, the world is facing three major crises: biodiversity loss, climate change and public health crisis. Among them, responding to the loss of biodiversity, that is, biodiversity conservation is the key and effective strategy and means for all these crises.

Deforestation, air pollution, excessive greenhouse gas emissions, marine debris pollution, etc. caused by excessive packaging have damaged the habitat of species and the ecological environment, which in turn have exacerbated the rate of biodiversity loss. Therefore, we must act against excessive packaging and protect biodiversity.

We are here today to call for:

I. When formulating relevant garbage classification laws and regulations, the local government departments must add the content that the relevant enterprises must not over-pack, must classify the garbage, and must assume their due social responsibilities.

II. The formulation of relevant standards should also adjust unreasonable regulations. For example, the standard for moon cake packaging. The new version of GB/T19855-2015 "Mooncake" new standard cancels "9.3.2 The empty space of single-piece packaging should not exceed 35% of the total volume of single-piece; The average distance between the single-pack and the inner wall of the outer box and the single-pack should not exceed 2.5cm." This is very wrong, which is not conducive to curbing the atmosphere of excessive packaging. Therefore, we should make recommendations to the relevant government departments, requiring all standards to comply with the requirements of Article 6 of the new environmental protection law. All individuals and units must protect the environment, save resources, and ensure that all standards are implemented "Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets."

III. Invite all relevant departments, including the General Administration of Market Supervision, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Ministry of Commerce, and various industry associations, to jointly initiate an initiative to effectively control the phenomenon of over-packaging through regulations and notices from various departments and industries.

IV. We call on all social organizations and volunteers to take action to safeguard public environmental interests.

V. We call on companies and consumers to join in the campaign against excessively exquisite packaging when they consume products. Over-packaging has also caused huge damage to human habitats. Enterprises should also consciously go for simplicity, seize the key core, and improve the quality of products and services, rather than fooling consumers with excessive, flashy, and environmentally damaging packaging.

VI. Let us call for the establishment of the International Anti-Excessive Packaging Day (June 22) together through the policy advocacy and essay advocacy.

Please join us!

(Photo credit: CBCGDF)