Four apples are wrapped in polythene and presented on a polystyrene tray that can't be recycled.

This is a typical example of wasteful packaging that we see in supermarkets every day. The excessive and wasteful packaging goes directly from the shop shelf to the household bin.

A People's Daily report found that more than 50 percent of China's consumer goods were packed excessively. The wrappers contributed to one-third of the waste in cities, or half of all solid waste. And the waste is worth 400 billion yuan ($63 billion) every year.

Take shirts, for example. China produces 1.2 billion shirts every year, with 800 million packed in boxes. These boxes require 240,000 tons of paper. Then there are the individual wrappers. Only 20 percent of those are recycled.

In fact, we are bombarded with excessive product wrappers. And it is a global issue. In many parts of the world a large proportion of retail packaging ends up in landfills where it takes a long time to decompose and even then the waste can give off gases and toxins that pollute the air and water.

But some parts of the world have acted.

In 1994, the European Union adopted a directive that guides the collection and disposal of post-consumer packaging. It gives member states the mandate to establish systems to collect used packaging and reuse or recycle as much of it as possible.

Germany introduced the Green Dot system. It has as its backbone the principle of "producer pays". In other words, it is the responsibility of the company that puts a package into the market to make sure it is disposed of in an environmentally sound manner.

Britain uses Packaging Waste Recovery Notes (PRNs). These are tradable permits, similar to promissory notes, that packagers are issued in proportion to the amount and type of packaging they put into the market. The packagers then pay someone to take the PRNs off their hands and take responsibility for recycling or reusing all or most of the packaging.

In China, the issue remains poorly understood. This complicates efforts to address the environmental impact of discarded packaging materials.

Compostable wrappings are not always the best solution because they can cause increased damage to the environment if not disposed of correctly. It is vital that shops are required to reduce unnecessary packaging.

And efforts to facilitate recycling, by providing an end-market for recycled material and encouraging appropriate disposal, are needed.

The amount of packaging produced in this country is simply excessive. Our lawmakers need to produce a bill limiting packaging amounts and types. Shops should be required to reduce waste if they do not voluntarily make cuts.

It is also necessary to introduce a waste diversion rule to put the onus for recycling on manufacturers. The impact of packaging waste on the environment can be minimized by prudently selecting materials.

(China Daily 09/26/2011 page8)