Delivery Hero today launched its Sustainable Packaging Program that gives restaurants on its platform more eco-friendly options for their to-go orders. The concept is currently piloting in Austria, Chile, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Qatar, and Singapore. Delivery Hero said in today’s announcement that it will expand the program to other markets in the near future.
The company will deploy 10 million units of “sustainable packaging” by the end of 2022. Specifically, that means providing packaging that’s either fully plant based or plastic alternatives that are free of perfluoroalkoxy-alkanes (PFAS), the manmade chemicals frequently used to make grease- and liquid-resistant packaging.
For its eco-friendly packaging, Delivery Hero is collaborating with Eco-Products and BIO-LUTIONS on various products including boxes, compartment containers, salad bowls, soup bowls, and sauce containers. (Delivery Hero invested in BIO-LUTIONS in 2019.) These will, according to the company, be available to restaurants on the Delivery Hero platform at “affordable pricing.”
Several efforts over the last year or so have seen restaurants and restaurant-related companies address the industry’s packaging (aka trash) problem. Major QSRs like McDonald’s and Burger King have both piloted reusable container programs, while parts of the U.S. have companies like DeliverZero, which works with restaurants to bring reusable containers to the delivery process.
Delivery Hero’s news is notable because up to now, no major delivery service has announced plans to actually take over the responsibility of finding and providing eco-friendly packaging. Normally, this task is up to the restaurants themselves. Especially given the last year, many smaller businesses do not have access to affordable options that aren’t mainstream plastics. Delivery Hero, meanwhile, operates 13 subsidiaries, in addition to its name brand, all over the world, so its potential impact could be huge. Company co-founder and CEO Niklas Östberg said in a statement today that the Sustainable Packaging Program “aspires to pave the way for the industry and deliver a more climate friendly service for customers and communities around the world.”
The program follows the company’s earlier announcement of becoming carbon neutral by the end of 2021.
If you want to learn more about Delivery Hero and other happenings in the restaurant world, join The Spoon on August 17 for a virtual Restaurant Tech Summit. The day-long event will discuss the digitization of the restaurant industry and what that means for its players. Grab a ticket here, and come ready to ask some questions.
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