Green express box launched by Cainiao. [Photo/Weibo]

China's e-commerce giant Alibaba is planning to launch a green logistics, including green express boxes, to deal with waste and pollution caused by package materials and transportation in express delivery business, thepaper.cn reported on Thursday.

Jack Ma, chairman of Alibaba, said: "Our group is formulating a standard for 'green logistics' " during a speech, the giant's logistics offshoot Cainiao's "green logistics" was said to include green express boxes, bags, vehicles and so on.

"We are trying to introduce reusable express boxes made of safe plastics and hope the boxes will gradually replace current cartons. In this case, after the buyers sign and receive their packages, couriers will retake the boxes and send the boxes back to delivery warehouse where the boxes used to be," said a source in charge of the logistics business in Cainiao.

The source also told thepaper.cn that the express boxes will begin a soft use in Shanghai in April, and the plan will cover 20 cities, including Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, at the end of 2016.

The green move aims to deal with the waste and pollution caused by plastic bags and cartons used in transporting goods.

In 2015, 2.96 billion woven bags, 8.26 billion plastic bags, 9.9 billion cartons, 16.95 billion meters of tapes and 2.97 billion buffers or bubble wraps were used in express delivery business, which moved 20.6 billion packages, according to Cainiao's data.