Having a cup of milk tea in the afternoon or at party time is a consumption for many young peopleXiTraditionally, new tea drinks use disposable plastic cups, which greatly exacerbates plastic pollution.
Recently, Hefei City Shanshui Environmental Protection and Development Center and Hefei University of Technology jointly released the plastic reduction ranking of new tea and beverage companies. Based on five key indicators: the company's plastic reduction strategy, information transparency, plastic reduction actions, public communication and communication, and innovation and development. Evaluate the company's plastic reduction actions.
The research found that the plastic reduction actions of the 10 leading brand companies in New Tea in 2023 are generally lagging behind. When the full score is 100 points, only two of the 10 companies score 30-50 points, and the remaining 8 companies all score below 30 points. Among them, Xi Tea scored the highest with 40 points, followed by Mixue Ice City with 36 points. This shows that most brand companies have just or have not yet started their plastic reduction actions, and systematic plastic reduction strategies and actions have not yet emerged.
Scores of 10 leading brand companies in new tea drinks in 2023
Taking Mixue Ice City as an example, it released the "2022 Corporate Social Responsibility Report", which records the company's main actions and achievements in plastic reduction, marking that it has identified its own responsibility for plastic reduction. Therefore, in this evaluation, its plastic reduction index was 0.25 (the maturity index of the "plastic reduction strategy" indicator was 0.025), while the remaining 9 companies lacked information on their plastic reduction strategies or action plans in the media.
New tea and beverage companies are urgent to reduce plastic production
According to the "2023 New Tea Beverage Research Report" released by the China Chain Store and Franchise Association and Meituan, the total number of new tea beverage stores in China will reach 515,000 in 2023, and the size of China's new tea beverage consumption market is expected to expand to 201.5 billion yuan in 2025.
China and countries around the world have formulated policies on the urgent environmental issue of plastic pollution, guiding market changes and developing a circular economy. Since the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued the "Opinions on Further Strengthening Plastic Pollution Control" in early 2020, the introduction and update of a series of intensive policies and regulations have marked that China's plastic pollution control has entered an era of systematic and full-chain governance. The new tea and beverage field, which is highly related to the take-out industry, is also one of the key areas for plastic pollution control.
The disposable plastic products used in large quantities in new tea drinks include beverage cups, cup lids, hot sealing films, straws and packaging bags. They are discarded after a short period of use and are difficult to recycle under my country's existing classification and recycling system. Most of them enter waste disposal links such as incineration and landfill. The amount of disposable plastic products continues to increase with the sale of cups of milk tea, which not only causes resource waste and carbon emissions in raw materials, production and other links, but also increases the burden and cost of urban domestic waste disposal. While expanding their business to achieve growth, new tea brand companies should also pay timely attention to the negative environmental impact of their business, adopt proactive strategies to fulfill their corporate social responsibilities, and transform into a circular economy.
Some multinational companies have accumulated experience in how to reduce packaging plastics. For example, Starbucks stipulates that customers can get a 4 yuan discount for each cup of coffee they bring in.
Integrate single-use plastic packaging reduction goals and actions into corporate sustainable development strategies
Based on the evaluation results of plastic reduction of new tea brand companies, combined with the progress of relevant plastic reduction policies and market development trends in domestic and foreign industries, and drawing on the experience of international brands, this ranking report also provides suggestions on how to further adopt plastic reduction measures for Chinese new tea brand companies.
The report recommends that the first company should establish goals, strategies and action plans for reducing single-use plastic packaging. Enterprises should conduct an inventory of their own packaging materials and quantities, and formulate reduction targets and corresponding action plans based on baseline data; secondly, incorporate the reduction targets and actions for disposable plastic packaging into the company's sustainable development strategy, and establish an overall planning and coordination department including the company's management, responsible for the implementation and performance of the reduction target for disposable plastic packaging.
Second, strictly implement national and local regulations on bans and restrictions on the use of disposable plastics. Enterprises should formulate a full-process, multi-level action plan for the reduction of disposable plastic packaging that covers the entire process of source reduction to terminal treatment based on the priority of waste management from reduction, reuse to recycling.
Third, strengthen information disclosure and regularly communicate with stakeholders such as the public, investors, and delivery platforms. Enterprises should take stock and announce the use of disposable plastic products and the effectiveness of plastic reduction in accordance with the "Management Measures for the Use and Reporting of Single-Use Plastic Products by Business Operators"; use the communication and marketing advantages of new tea and beverage companies to better convey to consumers corporate plastic reduction strategies and actions to promote the trend of green packaging; timely disclose corporate plastic reduction actions and progress in corporate social responsibility or ESG reports.