Environmentalists in China have voiced concern about China's low recycling habits following Singles Day, the world's biggest shopping extravaganza that happened last week Friday.

The shopping extravaganza saw bargainers spend 10 billion yuan ($145.7 million) in less than ten minutes on Alibaba's Tmall, China's largest online shopping site.

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China's version of the United States' Black Friday will result in one billion parcels traveling from retailers to customers' doorsteps over the next few weeks.

Employees of waste disposal and recycling firms are, however, concerned that the huge sale could damage both landfills and the environment.

Zhu Lei, a researcher at the Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication, told Caixin that the less than 20 percent of recycling habit was something to be worried about.

"Only half the amount of all cardboard waste, the primary material in most delivery boxes is recycled," he said. "Plastics and plastic forms are almost never processed.

Online shopping has picked up in China. Recycling, on the other hand, remains quite dormant in the region.

The fall in recycling has been blamed on a lack of coordination between public and private recycling firms.

Garbage collected by private firms is currently sold to recycling firms, while those collected by local governments are either burnt or end up in landfills.

According to the Global Express Association, recycling companies overlook packaging waste and pay greater attention to items that fetch a greater price like metal.

"A third of all urban waste products in China consists of packaging materials," read a statement by the Express Association. "Cardboard is overlooked by private garbage collectors because it fetches a lower price."

A policy introduced in June by the National Development and Reforms Commission intends to introduce standards for the collection, sorting, and recycling of waste products in China.

Tagschina, China Singles Day, Alibaba, recycling, NDRC