SHANGHAI • Accumulated waste from China's e-commerce and express delivery sectors stands to more than quadruple by 2025 unless action is taken to rein it in, green groups said yesterday, as an online shopping spree known as Singles' Day broke new sales records.

The volume of packaging material used by the sectors hit 9.4 million tonnes last year, and is set to reach 41.3 million tonnes by 2025, if the rate of increase is maintained, Greenpeace and other non-government bodies said in a report.

"The e-commerce giants have barely offered even superficial responses," said Mr Tang Damin, a campaigner with Greenpeace in Beijing. "They're biding their time for regulation to come out."

Alibaba Group Holding said yesterday that sales for its annual Singles' Day shopping blitz crossed the US$30 billion mark (S$40.8 billion) at 4.31pm, putting the event on track to set a record in its 11th year.

The figure is equivalent to more than 80 per cent of US rival Amazon.com Inc's online store sales in the latest quarter and matches takings across Alibaba's e-commerce platforms on Singles' Day last year.

As e-commerce giants work to extend their reach into rural regions, 1.88 billion packages were delivered from Nov 11 to Nov 16 last year, an annual increase of almost 26 per cent, the State Post Bureau said.

There is no official figure for the waste generated, but Greenpeace estimates it to have exceeded 250,000 tonnes.

China has moved to turn recycling into a profitable business as space for landfills becomes scarcer and environmental concern grows over plastic waste, but has yet to tackle e-commerce waste, only recycling around 5 per cent of plastic packaging, the green groups said in their report. Last month, China's market regulator published new draft packaging standards that will restrict courier firms to an approved list of recyclable materials.

Alibaba said last month it was now "greener than ever" and had incentives for customers to recycle, adding that its delivery subsidiary Cainiao would observe Nov 20 as a special cardboard recycling day.

Another online retailer, JD.com, also announced it had cut back on adhesive tape and paper used at its warehouses, besides adopting more recyclable materials.

China is building 100 "comprehensive resource utilisation bases", creating pilot "zero-waste" cities and pushing for mandatory trash sorting rules in major hubs such as Shanghai.

"We cannot say China is not recycling," said Mr Antoine Grange, chief executive for recycling at Suez Asia. "One point that is more difficult in China is traceability, and the lack of infrastructure to separate waste."

REUTERS