China's Singles' Day online discount sales bonanza last week saw bargain-hungry buyers spend more than $38-billion (R540-billion), flooding the postal and courier businesses with about 331 million packages - and leaving an estimated 160,000 tonnes of packaging waste. The annual November 11 buying frenzy is a regular fillip for giant online retailers such as Alibaba and JD.com, but the mountains of rubbish produced from just one day of conspicuous consumption have angered environmentalists. "Record-setting over-consumption means record-setting waste," said Nie Li, toxics campaigner at Greenpeace, which estimates this year's orders will produce more than 160000 tonnes of waste, including plastic, cardboard and tape. Total sales from Singles' Day hit $38.25-billion, with 1.38 billion orders placed, state media reported. About a quarter of the total sales involved household electric devices or cellphones. China's State Post Bureau said postal and courier companies were having to deal wi...
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