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on august 30, the application for the 2024 "qingshan science and technology award" was officially launched, continuing to focus on four major topics, including green and low-carbon materials, carbon capture and resource utilization. it is planned to select 10 people, and each winner will receive a prize of 1 million yuan. the "qingshan science and technology award" is an important part of meituan's "qingshan plan". it was launched in 2021 to help achieve the dual carbon goals and promote the green and low-carbon transformation of the industry. it has been held for three sessions and has funded a total of 29 young scientists who are conducting cutting-edge explorations in the fields of green and low-carbon materials. the youngest winner is only 34 years old.

it is reported that meituan launched the industry's first environmental protection action "qingshan plan" on august 31, 2017. on the occasion of its seventh anniversary, it also announced the progress of its goals in the fields of plastic pollution control, promoting sustainable consumption, and responding to climate change.

in terms of plastic pollution control, for post-consumer discarded plastic lunch boxes, if we can combine waste classification management with the construction of a recyclable system, so that recycling can be scaled up and recycled plastics can have a larger market, such environmental protection actions will be sustainable. as of the end of august this year, meituan qingshan project has linked the upstream and downstream industries and has implemented large-scale waste classification and lunch box recycling projects in 22 cities in 20 provinces across the country, recycling a total of about 22,000 tons of plastic lunch boxes, helping to reduce carbon emissions by about 34,000 tons, and achieving the previously promised 2025 goal ahead of schedule.

among them, under the guidance of beijing development and reform commission and beijing urban management commission, meituan qingshan project and china environmental protection foundation launched the "box fusion new fashion" beijing takeaway box recycling project in october last year, exploring the establishment of a full-chain meal box recycling system of "recycling station-community transfer station-renewable resource sorting center".

▲ the "box fusion new fashion" project is located at the recyclables station in laibei garden, chaoyang district, beijing (data map)

catering businesses and recycling companies have also joined this campaign. recently, meituan qingshan plan jointly launched the "good cup rebirth" campaign with cha baidao and aihuishou, encouraging end consumers to take the initiative to put plastic milk tea cups in recycling stations through vouchers and other means, further creating a green packaging solution for the entire life cycle of plastic milk tea cups, forming an industry demonstration effect, and increasing the recycling value of plastic packaging products. so far, more than 14,000 people have participated, and the weight of recycled milk tea cups is nearly 1.7 tons.

in terms of promoting sustainable consumption, the current application of recycled plastics is relatively single. how to make recycled plastics be used in a wider range of scenarios requires the joint efforts of the industrial chain. with the support of meituan qingshan technology fund, scientists from donghua university have developed key technologies for preparing fine-denier polypropylene fibers and high-strength polypropylene fibers from plastic lunch boxes, and creatively realized "plastic spinning into silk", using waste lunch boxes to produce high-value recycled products such as quick-drying t-shirts, which has received positive market feedback.

▲jointly with donghua university, waste lunch boxes are recycled into quick-drying fabrics and t-shirts (data map)

while solving the existing problem, how to reduce the incremental problem is also an important issue for sustainable operation and consumption. so far, the total number of meituan takeaway "no tableware required" orders has exceeded 7.7 billion, and more than 460 million meituan takeaway users have used the "no tableware required" product function. in june this year, meituan hotel officially launched a low-carbon accommodation product, and users can choose not to use disposable items when booking a hotel. according to the calculation of the china environmental joint certification center, each order that does not require disposable items can reduce carbon emissions by 203.2g. at present, nearly 400,000 meituan hotel merchants and nearly one million users have joined this action.

replacing with green packaging is also an important way to reduce the increase. in april this year, meituan qingshan project released the 2024 recommended list of green packaging for catering takeout (the third batch), which is divided into three categories: "easy to recycle and regenerate plastics", "paper", and "degradable plastics", covering 129 environmentally friendly packaging products from 79 companies, providing catering businesses with more choices.

the person in charge of meituan’s qingshan project said that in the future, they will continue to promote the green development of the industry, build a green and low-carbon consumption ecology, and contribute to building a beautiful home where people and nature live in harmony with each other with the vision of "better life, more beautiful nature".

(china news network)