Uber Eats and DeliverZero seek to tackle carbon emissions and packaging waste by offering takeaway food in reusable, returnable packaging, and are extending their partnership to Los Angeles, San Francisco, and other areas on the West Coast of the United States.
According to Uber, restaurants and municipalities alike face supply chain issues, limited access to composting and recycling infrastructure, and other issues. Its solution is to partner with packaging providers across Europe, Asia Pacific, and the US in a bid to offer sustainability-minded, discounted options to over one million operating Uber Eats merchants.
Reusable packaging pilots are also running in France, Switzerland, Germany, and the UK, among other countries.
In the United States, Uber Eats has partnered with DeliverZero, bringing its model for reusable takeaway packaging to Uber Eats restaurants in New York and Colorado. Now the companies have expanded their partnership to over 130 restaurants on the West Coast, focusing closely on the regions around Los Angeles and San Fransisco.
The solution seeks to help merchants and platforms distribute food in reusable containers that are easily returned at storefronts or via a courier. In turn, it aims to cut down on packaging waste and give consumers the means to contribute.
Consumers ordering food through Uber Eats in New York, Boulder, Denver, Los Angeles, or the Bay Area are encouraged to search for ‘DeliverZero’, or to find the DeliverZero reusable packaging banner or carousel to find participating restaurants. Before proceeding to checkout, they are directed to the top of the restaurant’s menu to select the “Use DeliverZero containers, please” option; its price varies between merchants but is said to cost around $1.00 across the country.
The courier collects and delivers the order as usual, but it arrives in reusable, returnable packaging. The consumer will also receive a text listing options for returning the packaging; it can be returned to the original restaurant or any participating DeliverZero restaurant, which 70% of DeliverZero customers are said to opt for, or the consumer can schedule a pickup by a DeliverZero partnered courier.
Since the partnership launched in New York City last year, it is thought to have prevented 11,000 single-use containers from ending up in landfills. It is estimated to avoid over 1,810kg of greenhouse gas emissions and almost 6,000 gallons of water.
Now 20 Los Angeles-based restaurant partners on Uber Eats have signed on with DeliverZero, and the number is expected to increase. It is claimed that Uber Eats’ account management teams are helping various interested restaurants across America introduce reusables via incentives and more.
The company also emphasizes that consumers ordering DeliverZero packaging through Uber Eats will receive the packaging for free in the lead up to Earth Day on 22nd April.
This development follows various other sustainability-minded efforts from Uber Eats last year. For instance, it worked with Visa to launch a programme helping restaurants embrace environmentally conscious packaging solutions with a $1 million fund; and, financed by Hubbub and Starbucks’ Bring It Back Fund, it trialled an alternative reusable system featuring doorstep collection – evaluating whether the convenience of such a service would drive uptake in reusable packaging.
More recently, TOMRA and the municipality of Aarhus announced a pilot for the ‘world’s first’ open-managed system for reusable takeaway packaging. This solution is anticipated to guide entire cities away from single-use.
If you liked this story, you might also enjoy:
Report: The ultimate guide to global plastic sustainability regulation
The Brief: Oxo-(bio)degradables: the who, what, and why of breaking down fossil-based plastics
Sustainable Packaging Summit: How Kraft-Heinz uses collaboration to drive innovation
The Brief: Using ocean-bound plastic in packaging – how, why and should we?
No comments yet