Zomato on Friday announced 100% ‘plastic neutral deliveries’ from April 2022 onwards, while additionally setting an objective to deliver more than 10 crore orders in sustainable packaging over the following three years.
“From now on, every meal you order through Zomato will be 100 per cent plastic neutral, which means we will voluntarily recycle more than 100 per cent of all plastic utilised in your order’s packaging,” Deepinder Goyal (CEO-Zomato).
To achieve this, Goyal said, “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.”
It will be a difficult task to complete. To eliminate plastic waste from the meal delivery business is going to be a lot of work, 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.
While recognizing that this drive will cost Zomato a lot of money and negatively influence its profit and loss balance, 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 advances taken by Zomato towards long haul sustainability, he said that last year Zomato had started ‘Climate Conscious Delivery’ and began funding local environmental projects to counterbalance the carbon footprint of every one of its deliveries and packaging in India.
Zomato had also made ‘no cutlery required’ 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 percent 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.
