November 11th, also known as China’s Black Friday, is quickly approaching, and many customers are busying filling their shopping carts and looking forward to the shipping day. However, instead of receiving a cardboard shipping box, some customers this year will receive a plastic box as a replacement, which can be reused up to 1,000 times each.

Recently, a China’s e-commerce platform Suning launched a foldable plastic delivery box in over 13 Chinese cities including Beijing and Guangzhou. After a customer’s package is delivered, the delivery man can fold the box into a plastic board and bring it back for the next delivery.

Usage of the new kind of shipping box can not only save consumption of traditional cardboard shipping boxes but also reduce costs for retail store owners, as the price of paper has gone up recently.

Producing a plastic delivery box normally costs 25 yuan (4 US dollars) in total, which means each delivery will cost only 0.025 yuan (less than one cent) with each of them having 1,000 using life. However, the cardboard box’s price has increased 0.6 yuan (1 cent) recently as one of the largest online shopping days, November 11th approaches. To cover the lifting paper fee, Chinese major shipping companies such as ZYD Express and Yunda Express which still use traditional cardboard boxes have increased their delivery charges since October.

The launch of plastic delivery box caught netizens attention on Chinese social media. Some supporters tell their opinion that it’s environmental-friendly and economical.  However, others think that there might be a hygiene issue of the reusable boxes. Meanwhile, many thought it's very inconvenient since customers need to sign their package in person so that the delivery man can recycle the box right after it's delivered. 

According to data from China Post, about 99.2 billion cardboard shipping boxes and 169.8 billion duck tapes were used in 2015, which caused a packaging waste of about 4 million ton. The adoption of reusable plastic boxes will dramatically improve this situation. 

Besides Suning, other e-commerce giants such as JD and Alibaba also launched recycled packages such as biodegradable shipping bags and tape free boxes.