Reducing packaging waste in the meal delivery industry

Abstract

Online meal delivery platforms are growing worldwide. Nevertheless, the takeaway business model is currently the major source of plastic packaging waste generation. The alarming growth of plastic pollution leads to action among governments worldwide resulting in single-use plastic bans. A handful of start-ups offer reusable food container services. However, no online meal delivery platform has adopted such as service. The market size of these initiatives is therefore still small. There is no proof of concept on a larger scale. For this purpose, this study identifies, defines, and evaluates reusable food container handling methods in the meal delivery industry. We conduct a simulation study to measure the environmental- and economical performance of different container handling methods. Our experimental findings suggest that: (i) food container returnment by drivers results in the largest amount of cost- and emission savings, (ii) customer returnment to any random reusable restaurant results in a less controllable system, resulting in more redistribution events, higher costs, and more emissions, (iii) the hybrid container handling method gives two options for return which enlarges the convenience for return by a wide variety of customers. We thus conclude that the passive handling method results in the largest cost- and emission savings, however, the practical implications i.a. concept convenience remains an important topic for further research.