As part of its commitment to reduce plastic pollution across the food delivery sector, Just Eat has teamed up with ClubZero to trial a reusable packaging service.
Designed to replace plastic packaging through a convenient return scheme, the three month trial will see six Just Eat restaurant partners across London test the service with reusable takeaway boxes.
As part of the trial, customers will have a choice to opt in for reusable packaging when placing an order with a participating restaurant through the Just Eat platform. Having enjoyed their meal, they will then either arrange for the packaging to be collected through the ClubZero app or will be able to drop the items off at designated ClubZero drop off points.
It is estimated that 500 million plastic takeaway boxes are used across the UK takeaway industry each year, and even if these plastic boxes are reused multiple times, they often end up in landfill. The boxes used as part of this trial use up to 50% less CO2 than plastic coated boxes and are fully recyclable.
The trial follows on from Just Eat’s existing partnership with sustainable startup Notpla, which has seen the business pilot the use of seaweed-lined home-compostable/disposable packaging.
This new partnership will explore how best the service will work for reusable food boxes in the food delivery sector and will assess the feasibility of rolling it out more widely across the Just Eat network.
Robin Clark, Senior Director of Global Partnerships and Sustainability at Just Eat Takeaway.com, said, “Building a more sustainable future for the food delivery industry is extremely important to us. We want to use our reach to support our network adopt more environmentally-friendly products and practices.
'We’ve already taken a number of positive steps to drive this change, from pioneering the use of seaweed sauce sachets and boxes to increasing the number of electric vehicles we use in food delivery.
“We’re excited to expand our work in this space by launching a new partnership with ClubZero to test a reusable packaging service in the UK.
'This trial will help us assess how best to roll the service out more widely so that with the support of both customers and restaurant partners, we can continue to tackle plastic pollution across the sector.”
Safia Qureshi, founder and CEO of ClubZero, said, “We’re shaping the future of takeaway food and beverage at ClubZero and have a big ambition to make London a zero-waste city.
'We’re giving consumers the right to choose an alternative to single-use packaging. In the same way as we’ve seen choices for consumers beyond meat and beyond dairy, we’re giving consumers the option beyond landfill packaging.
'The future is returnable packaging and we are thrilled to be starting with the best partners in the industry.”
Following the merger of Just Eat and Takeaway.com last year, the business has been carrying out a global carbon footprint analysis to determine an accurate measurement of its direct and indirect carbon emissions, and those associated with the food sold and deliveries carried out through the combined Just Eat Takeaway.com platform.
This is currently in progress and once the business has an accurate measurement in relation to the analysis, it will be setting reduction targets and reporting these over the coming weeks.