Are Chinese residents willing to pay for green express packaging and to participate in express packaging recycling?

The rapid development of e-commerce has resulted in a significant increase in express packaging, causing serious environmental pollution and resource waste problems. To achieve green governance of express packaging, both government regulations and corporate participation must be implemented. However, the crucial role played by consumers who ultimately use express packaging should not be overlooked. This paper adopts a consumer-oriented perspective and utilizes first-hand survey data, along with principal component analysis, probit regression, and conditional value evaluation methods to explore whether residents are willing to pay for green express packaging and participate in express packaging recycling. The results show that consumers’ choice of green express packaging is mainly influenced by four factors, including packaging quality factors, political and environmental factors, other packaging factors, and commodity factors. Notably, 70% of residents surveyed are willing to pay a premium for green express packaging, with the average premium being CNY 2.46 or 15.8% of the total cost for green express packaging. Furthermore, residents are likely to participate in express packaging recycling if they are given an economic incentive of CNY 0.93 or 6.9% of the cost per packaging. Based on these findings, this paper provides targeted policy recommendations to address relevant issues.