Zomato announces 100 percent plastic free deliveries from May

Company decides deliver over 100 million additional eco-friendly food delivery orders over the course of the next three years.

Company decides to move to a 100 per cent  EV fleet by 2030.

New Delhi: Online food delivery giant Zomato on Friday announced 100 per cent plastic neutral deliveries from May 2022, while also setting a target to deliver more than 10 crore orders in sustainable packaging over the next three years.

“From now on, every meal you order through Zomato will be 100 percent plastic neutral, which means we will voluntarily recycle more than 100 per cent of all plastic utilized in your order’s packaging” Zomato Founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal said in a Blogspot post.

He said, 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,”

The campany also decided to deliver over 100 million additional eco-friendly food delivery orders over the course of the next three years.

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.”

Asserting that more work lies ahead in order to completely reduce or eliminate the use of plastic in food delivery, Goyal said that 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.

To achieve this, the company is also going to partner with various stakeholders working on innovative solutions and models for the restaurant industry including government-led initiatives, social enterprises and start-ups.

“We are going to partner with various stakeholders working on innovative solutions and models for the restaurant industry including government-led initiatives, social enterprises and startups to achieve this,” Goyal said.

He said that the buck doesn’t stop at only offsetting/recycling the plastic used for deliveries. This is only the first step towards a cleaner earth. Much more work lies ahead of us where we do what we can in order to reduce/eliminate the use of plastic in food delivery completely.

While acknowledging that this initiative is going to cost Zomato, Goyal said, “This initiative is going to cost us a significant amount of money and of course, going to affect our P&L negatively. 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, Goyal 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,” Goyal said.

“We signed up for the EV100 initiative, and have committed to move to a 100% EV fleet by 2030. At every such step, you welcomed company’s efforts and played an equally important role to make Zomato more sustainable” he added.

“Doing all this, last year, we offset ~500,000 MTs of carbon emissions. All towards the mission of creating a greener future for our future generations” Goyal said.