On the occasion of the World Earth Day on April 22, Zomato on Friday announced that it will go 100% ‘plastic neutral’ for its deliveries starting from April 2022. Additionally, pnline food delivery platform set the target to deliver more than 10 crore orders in sustainable packaging over the next three years. Deepinder Goyal, Zomato Founder and CEO, in a blogspot shared on Twitter said that the company recognises that it is important to start promoting biodegradable and other non-plastic alternatives to make them become as affordable and available as plastic is today.
Deepinder Goyal tweeted, “starting today, we will recycle 100% plastic used for food delivery packaging on Zomato orders. Also, over the next 3 years, we’ll help cut down the plastic footprint of the restaurant sector."
In the blogspot, he wrote, "from now on, every meal you order through Zomato will be 100% plastic neutral, which means we will voluntarily recycle more than 100% of all plastic utilised in your order's packaging."
"We have started working with cutting edge ISO-certified plastic waste management organisations, who will partner with municipalities across India, to collect and responsibly process plastic waste," Goyal shared.
Asserting that more work lies ahead in order to completely reduce or eliminate the use of plastic in food delivery, he said Zomato is also "amping up our efforts to develop and promote sustainable packaging for all types of cuisines."
"We are aiming to deliver over 100 million additional eco-friendly food delivery orders (orders in sustainable packaging) over the course of the next three years, by supporting our restaurant partners in switching to affordable and sustainable packaging alternatives," Goyal said.
"We're going to partner with various stakeholders working on innovative solutions and models for the restaurant industry including government-led initiatives, social enterprises and startups."
Acknowledging that this initiative is going to cost Zomato a significant amount of money and affect its profit and loss statement negatively, Goyal said, "However, I strongly believe that what's good for the planet is good for business. I also believe that profits happen when you do everything else right. And this is surely a step in the right direction."
Sharing steps taken by Zomato towards long-term sustainability, he said that last year the company had launched 'Climate Conscious Delivery' and also started funding local environmental projects to offset the carbon footprint of all its deliveries and packaging in India.
Zomato had also made 'no cutlery required' as the default option on its app. This helped ensure 74 per cent of orders go without cutlery "preventing tonnes of single-use plastic from reaching landfills," he said.
"We signed up for the EV100 initiative, and have committed to move to a 100 per cent EV (electric vehicle) fleet by 2030," he said adding, doing all this, last year, the company offset around 5,00,000 MTs of carbon emissions.
