Eco-friendly and stylish

One of Lin's colleagues, whose surname is Li, said that the reason she is addicted to collecting milk tea bags is not just because they look lovely but also because some of the materials used are waterproof, which holds great potential for handicrafting and recycling.

"Large-sized waterproof bags are perfect for rainy days or during business trips, as they are good for storing wet umbrellas or placing slippers in a suitcase," she explained.

"Even more ingenious is that some high-quality two-cup milk tea bags have a divider in the middle, just enough to put a shoe in each side," she said with a grin. "By simply modifying or transforming the bags for storage, it makes things organized, clean and tidy."

Compared with the past practice of discarding packaging, upcycling or DIY modifications, in her opinion, is a new trend. "I want to be an environmentally friendly and stylish person. I don't want to be out of date," she added.

When China Daily searched Xiaohongshu for content related to the transformation of food and drink packaging at the end of September, millions of posts with transformed items or handmade tutorials could be found.

As of Sept 17, for example, more than 20,000 posts have the hashtag "milk tea bag upcycled into handbags" on the platform, with many users sharing tutorials or even selling their decorated handmade products such as cardboard boxes and pen holders online.

Similar posts have also been frequently viewed and discussed on Douyin, a popular short-video service provider. On March 2, a 14-second video demonstrating how to use milk tea packaging to make book covers received about 1.83 million thumbs-ups and was forwarded almost 2.74 million times.

One internet user, whose nickname is Gao Gao, recently posted her transformed packaging of Chagee, a Chinese milk tea brand, on Xiaohongshu, "because as a cat person, it's difficult for me to say no to anything with cat elements, so when I saw that Chagee released a bag with a cat pattern several weeks ago, I immediately made a purchase," said the 26-year-old who works in Zhejiang province.

To make the bag last longer, she took three days to transform it into a tote bag. After sharing the finished product and an online tutorial on how to make it, she received a thumbs-up from many strangers, "which gave me a great sense of fulfillment", she added.

Another Xiaohongshu user nicknamed Xiaogezi found joy after upcycling Chagee's cat-patterned bag into a handbag by adding some material.

"I carried the one-of-a-kind bag into a Chagee shop, attracting the attention of many customers. Some asked me where I bought the bag and some even expressed their will to buy it at a high price," she added.