The rapid growth of online shopping and express delivery services has resulted in an abundance of rubbish every day, including annual consumption of 16.95 billion meters of adhesive tape and 9.9 billion boxes last year, cankaoxiaoxi.com reported on Tuesday.

Statistics from the China Post show that the problem will only grow. Delivery services last year totaled 20.67 billion in the Chinese mainland, an annual increase of 48 percent. Experts say excessive packaging for couriered goods is generating increasing amounts of trash and that a recycling system should be established.

Zhu Lei, vice president of the Qingdao Research Institute at Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication, said that 2.96 billion woven bags, 8.26 billion plastic bags, 9.9 billion packing boxes, 16.95 billion meters of tape, and 2.97 billion buffers to avoid collision are estimated to have been used by express delivery businesses in 2015.

Most courier and e-business companies have no recycling programs. Adhesive tape and foam fillers are generally thrown away directly, the report said.

For express companies, the margins in recycling second-hand cartons are small, so they won't use manpower, materials or financial resources to recycle discarded goods, it was added.

Zhu argues that express delivery companies should establish standard delivery packing systems to avoid excessive packaging.

Shao Zhonglin, former deputy secretary general of the China Delivery Association, says that delivery companies should use more recycled materials that easily decompose, and encourages people to reuse packaging materials to avoid large amounts of waste.