Beijing’s Green Packaging Guide for Food Delivery Takes Effect: “One Less Layer” Is Only the First Step

Rain is falling, an iced drink is sweating, and several hot meals have just left the kitchen. A staff member places the meal containers and cup tray in a paper bag, folds the top, and then adds a plastic bag or a heavy nonwoven bag just before dispatch. The extra layer is meant to prevent rain exposure, leakage and temperature interference—and to keep the bag closed until it reaches the customer. Every layer appears to have a reason, yet total material use may not fall at all.

Today, Beijing local standard DB11/T 2510—2026, Guidelines for the Use of Green Packaging by Food Delivery Merchants, takes effect. The official interpretation does not prescribe one universal replacement. Instead, packaging should be selected according to the food, temperature, liquid content and task: dimensions should fit, functions should not be duplicated, unnecessary layers should be removed, and sealing or insulation should be retained where required.

The Guide places safety, material reduction, recyclability or degradability, and reuse within one framework. Rather than selecting one generic bag for every merchant, it asks two questions of each packaging layer: Is it necessary? If it is removed, which component will take over its function?

Research sources: Beijing Local Standards Announcement; official interpretation by the Beijing Municipal Administration for Market Regulation

01 · FOUR ACTIONS

Four Actions Before Removing a Layer

Action 01 | Define the Use Case. Record the food type, temperature, liquid content, condensation, weight, delivery time and weather conditions. Soup noodles, fried foods, iced drinks and baked goods cannot share one assessment standard. The result should be an order-specific operating-condition sheet.

Action 02 | Eliminate Redundancy. Clarify the role of the container, closure and outer bag, layer by layer. Where insulation is unnecessary, do not use a heavy bag as redundant protection. The result should be a layer-by-layer material-reduction checklist.

Action 03 | Restore Required Functions. Assign spill protection to the cup lid, meal container or sealing film; combined load carrying to the paper bag; and localized oil, moisture and condensation management to materials and structures at the points where they are needed. The result should be a default functional architecture.

Action 04 | Validate the Complete Order. Use actual food, load and delivery time to test the bag base, side gussets, adhesive seams, handles, folds and closure. Record secondary bagging, leakage, complaints and redeliveries to create a traceable sample-validation record.

After these four steps, the result should be more than a claim that the packaging is “greener.” It should be an order-specific packaging specification that stores, procurement teams, quality teams and suppliers can all understand.

02 · THREE CONDITIONS

Three Gaps Created by Removing a Layer

Rainy-Day Delivery | External Protection. Rainwater can enter along folds, adhesive seams, the bag base and handle paths. The solution must address both the outer surface and the complete bag structure. The key question is where a loaded bag first softens and where it first fails.

Hot-and-Cold Orders | Localized Oil and Moisture. Condensation from cold drinks, steam from hot meals and small amounts of oil concentrate in specific locations. Containers and closures should retain free liquids; the paper bag should receive added functionality only at the points of actual contact.

Order Fulfilment | A Continuous Load Path. Cup trays and meal containers transfer weight through the bag base, side gussets, bag walls and paper handles. A fold-over top reduces exposure, while a paper seal helps indicate whether the bag has been opened.

Functions cannot disappear with the removed layer. If one outer layer is eliminated, the paper bag must take on more of the work.

03 · BIOTEN ROUTE

Protect the Outside, Protect the Inside, Reinforce the Fiber Core

BIOTEN Packaging integrates the three operating conditions into one scenario-based, end-to-end solution for food-delivery paper bags, built around one technical proposition: Protect the outside, protect the inside and reinforce the fiber core.

These three routes first address how the package should be designed and validated. The final configuration must be determined by the order conditions, the complete material structure and whole-bag testing.

04 · PRODUCT FAMILY

Paper Bags Should Be Specified by Task

Combined takeaway orders require a food-delivery carrier paper bag. Coffee shops, convenience stores, small-item retailers and prepackaged foods are better suited to an easy-grip paper bag. Hot, dry, slightly moist or oily single items—such as steamed buns, corn and grilled sausages—can use a ready-to-eat functional paper-bag route.

One store may need all three bag types: a carrier bag for the complete order, an easy-grip bag for rapid takeaway, and a ready-to-eat bag for short-duration holding. When the bag format follows the task, material use has a real opportunity to fall.

05 · PRESSURE TEST

With One Less Layer, How Can “Less Material, More Performance” Be Quantified?

If removing a layer causes leakage, condensation-related softening, secondary bagging or order redelivery, total resource consumption may rise instead. Paper, PHA, waterborne coatings and “one less layer” are all directions—not proof of performance.

The most direct review is to determine whether the number of packaging layers and material grammage have fallen, whether secondary bagging has decreased, whether leakage and redelivery have increased, and whether the used structure can enter a real local collection pathway.

06 · ONE-ORDER DIAGNOSIS

Start the Diagnosis with One Order

If you are redesigning a food-delivery bag, submit: Photographs of the current bag or packed order; dimensions of the meal containers and cup trays; typical weight per bag; delivery time; and rainy-day or insulation requirements.

These five inputs are enough to start the first discussion and quickly identify whether the issue lies in dimensions, surface protection, localized barriers, or the load path through the handles and bag base. First make this order work; then discuss how to replicate the solution across more stores.

Valuable material reduction gives every layer a defined task, assigns every function to the right component and makes every order verifiable.