Considerable environmental impact of the rapid development of China's express delivery industry

The environmental and social problems related to global production and consumption are matters of concern. One component of this is how the express delivery industry is continuing to grow and develop with the rapid development of e-commerce. However, the indirect environmental impacts of the express delivery industry have not been seriously considered. Based on statistics of the types and quantities of packaging materials consumed by China's express delivery industry in 2015, this paper estimated the environmental load of express packaging materials consumed in the processes of production and distribution of express delivery in China. The results show that the rapid development of the express delivery industry will lead to a large consumption of express packaging materials. Even when only considering the processes of production and distribution of express packaging materials, this industry will still become a serious burden on China's environment. This study provides a scientific reference for the environmental impact assessment of China's express delivery industry and may promote the healthy and sustainable development of the express delivery industry.