Shenzhen turns takeaway packaging into park benches

If you are a regular visitor of Lianhua Hill Park, Bijia Mountain Park or Xiangmi Park, you may have noticed some unusual new benches quietly appearing around the grounds.

New benches with distinctive designs are seen in Lianhua Hill Park in Futian District. Photos from sznews.com

What makes these benches stand out is not their playful, distinctive designs, but the materials they are made from: recycled takeaway packaging. Collected, crushed and reprocessed, the food containers and beverage cups have been transformed into public amenities that visitors can see and use in everyday life.

A visitor rests on a bench made from recycled takeaway packaging at Bijia Mountain Park in Futian District.

At Bijia Mountain Park, these benches can be found alongside the Futian River Greenway, near Meituan's drone delivery lockers, along scenic corridors, in children's activity areas and on lawns. A debossed introduction on them indicates how many recycled takeaway containers and beverage cups went into making each one.

This bench is made from 825 recycled takeaway boxes and beverage cups. 

Ms. Gou, a resident living nearby, often cycles along the greenway after dropping her child off in the morning. She told reporters she had never imagined that takeaway boxes and beverage cups thrown away could eventually become something so useful in a park.

"Before, I didn't knew where things went after I sorted my waste. Now that I can see what they become, it feels like the effort really means something," she said.

A paper plane-shaped bench made from recycled takeaway packaging.

Low-value recyclables such as takeaway containers and beverage cups have long posed a practical challenge for urban recycling systems: how can they be properly sorted, collected and put to use?

On April 22 this year, under the guidance of the city's urban management and ecology and environment authorities, the Shenzhen Domestic Waste Classification Management Center joined the China Environmental Protection Foundation and Meituan Qingshan Project to launch a citywide initiative for greener management of takeaway packaging.

From establishing demonstration sites to promote the sorting and recycling of takeaway packaging, installing recycled-material amenities in public spaces, designing eco-friendly cultural and creative products, and raising public awareness of green and low-carbon living, these efforts aim to develop a Shenzhen model for the full-chain management of takeout packaging.

"Low value does not mean no value," said a representative of the Shenzhen Domestic Waste Classification Management Center. 

"With proper sorting and standardized recycling, eligible takeaway packaging can enter the recycling and reuse system. Bringing zero-waste benches into parks is about more than adding public amenities. We also want residents to see for themselves the value of waste sorting and resource recycling.”

A representative of the China Environmental Protection Foundation compared the initiative to a bridge. The foundation connects park management bodies, the recycling industry and implementing organizations to help link the stages of collection, recycling and reuse.

"Installing zero-waste benches in parks is not simply a matter of making public facilities. It is also an effort to bring the idea of resource recycling into public spaces and make it visible to the public," the representative said.