As the world observes the theme of ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’ for World Environment Day this June, the on-demand food delivery service in the Philippines, foodpanda, is recognizing the huge opportunity and responsibility it has in shaping the country’s food industry and its consequential impact on food and plastic wastage in the world.
foodpanda is striving to limit its impact on the environment by waging a war on plastic and launching an opt-in and opt-out function for plastic cutlery. Starting June, customers of the food delivery service will have the option to say “no” to disposable cutlery. With many orders being delivered to either offices or homes, where cutlery is readily available, foodpanda is hoping this initiative will significantly reduce the use of plastic cutlery.
“We hope that this campaign would encourage customers to opt-out of disposable cutlery since many of them are ordering food from their homes or offices. And with this, we estimate that this option can help reduce foodpanda's usage of plastic utensils by 30% in 2018,” says Iacopo Rovere, CEO of foodpanda Philippines.
foodpanda is launching the ‘no cutlery’ option with more than 50 participating restaurant partners such as S&R New York Style Pizza, Yabu, Tim Ho Wan, and Frankie’s across its three key cities in Metro Manila, Metro Cebu and Davao.
The opt-in cutlery function marks the first step in the food delivery company’s efforts to reduce its impact on the environment. Other initiatives in the pipeline for the upcoming months include replacing plastic bags with brown paper bags and increasing the number of cyclists and walkers in the delivery fleet, with hopes that less motorized vehicles will be used.
With these combined initiatives, foodpanda hopes to make a difference to the way plastic waste is viewed and reduce the overall environmental impact from food packaging waste. If you already have easy access to cutlery or if you do not need it for your meal, foodpanda appeals to you to please consider opting-out to help reduce plastic usage.
