A slew of ministry-level departments, including those responsible for logistics, health, agriculture and aviation have recently responded to matters of public concern.

Recycling helps delivery packaging go green

Last year, 200 million packaging boxes were recycled and reused across China's delivery and express industry, as the country made remarkable progress in the green governance of express packaging, according to a report published on Oct 23.

Compiled by the State Post Bureau's development and research center, the report said a more environmentally friendly development framework is taking shape.

Last year, 98 percent of delivery packages used electronic waybills to avoid the use of paper, equaling 61.7 billion sheets of A4.

E-commerce also scaled back the use of excessive packaging, with the proportion of recycled transit bags reaching 75 percent, saving 2.48 billion single-use plastic woven bags, the report said.

About 78 million self-assembly cartons were saved, thanks to the use of recyclable boxes, while the industry promoted low-carbon transportation by using 43,000 clean energy vehicles.

Shen Hongyan, director of the center, said science and technology are playing more significant roles in supporting the courier industry's green development by reducing costs and promoting increased efficiency.

The report reaffirmed the government's plan to curtail the use of nondegradable plastic packaging, plastic tape and single-use plastic woven bags at postal and express service outlets by 2025.

Plan outlined to prevent childhood, juvenile obesity

Ministries and departments have set a goal of reducing the average annual growth rates in the number of overweight and obese children and adolescents by 70 percent from a baseline during the coming decade.

The baseline will be the average rise in the number of such children from 2002 to 2017, according to a plan on managing childhood and adolescent obesity that was issued on Oct 16 and made public on Oct 23 by six departments, including the National Health Commission and the Ministry of Education.

The problem of obesity has spread nationwide, affecting the physical and mental health of children and adolescents.

In response, the plan specifies measures to be taken by families, schools, medical institutions and government bodies to achieve the goal.

The plan calls on family members to help children maintain a healthy diet, assist them in developing regular exercise as a hobby and monitor weight gain.

The authorities have ordered schools to provide nutritious, balanced diets, and guarantee a specified amount of time for physical activities. Elementary, secondary and high schools should provide at least one hour of medium-intensity exercise per day and more than three hours of high-intensity activities every week, the plan said.

Restroom revolution is flushed with success

China has made great progress in improving the rural living environment, with restroom renovation projects yielding remarkable results, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said recently.

Wu Hongyao, a senior official with the ministry, said that more than 30 million rural households have had their sanitation facilities renovated since 2018, when a three-year plan was unveiled to improve the rural living environment.

The ministry defined the plan as a key step toward the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

Now, more than 65 percent of rural households have access to sanitary toilets, Wu said at a news briefing on agricultural and rural development on Oct 27.

The treatment of sewage and garbage is improving as waste collection, transportation and disposal systems now cover more than 90 percent of all villages, according to Wu.

The ministry will review the outcome of the three-year plan and formulate further measures in the coming five years to bolster public satisfaction in rural areas, he said.

Civil aviation sector hails decade of safe operations

As of September, the nation's civil aviation sector had seen safe flight operations for 10 consecutive years and one month, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China. By the end of September, the sector had recorded a total of 86.69 million safe flight hours, according to the administration at a news conference held on Oct 15.

The country is the world's second-largest civil aviation market, with 660 million passenger trips last year, a rise of 7.9 percent from 2018, according to CAAC.

Since 2016, the civil aviation authorities have rigidly implemented a strategy to control the total volume of flights and implement structural adjustments to ensure the sustainability of the civil aviation industry, the administration said.

CAAC said it has consistently improved safety management and infrastructure construction to sustain the sector, and great efforts have been made to promote early warning of risks and the regulation of priorities based on related data.