What "Scale" Means - 1 Day Of Retail Sales In China Generates 160,000 Tons Of Packaging Waste

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SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s Singles’ Day online discount sales bonanza on Saturday saw bargain-hungry buyers spend over $38 billion, flooding the postal and courier businesses with around 331 million packages - and leaving an estimated 160,000 tonnes of packaging waste.

The annual Nov. 11 buying frenzy is a regular fillip for giant online retailers like Alibaba and JD.com, but the mountains of trash produced from just one day of conspicuous consumption have angered environmentalists.

“Record-setting over-consumption means record-setting waste,” said Nie Li, toxics campaigner at Greenpeace, which estimates this year’s orders will produce more than 160,000 tonnes of packaging waste, including plastic, cardboard and tape.

Total sales from Singles’ Day hit 254 billion yuan ($38.25 billion), with 1.38 billion orders placed, state media reported. Around a quarter of the total sales involved household electric devices or mobile phones. China’s State Post Bureau (SPB) said postal and courier companies are having to deal with at least 331 million packages, up 31.5 percent from last year.

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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-singles-day-waste/china-faces-waste-hangover-after-singles-day-buying-binge-idUSKBN1DH0WO

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1. It would be interesting to see comparable figures for the U.S. on any given day. NT

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2. True, and the event reported on above is anomalous . . . kind of like Cyber Monday, apparently

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