talabat to pilot 100 plant based sustainable packaging in Qatar from December

Date

12/3/2021 4:07:21 AM

(MENAFN- The Peninsula) The Peninsula

talabat, the region's leading online food delivery and q-commerce platform, has announced the launch of its Sustainable Packaging Programme to reduce plastic waste and carbon emissions across the region, starting with pilot operations in Qatar and the UAE from December.

The launch is part of Delivery Hero's (talabat's parent company) global roll-out of the programme across eight markets.talabat's new packaging, which will be available for selected restaurant partners and vendors to adopt, is 100 percent plant-based and con-tains no perfluoroalkoxy-alkanes (PFA), which are com-monly known as forever chem-icals, and cannot be broken down by nature.

The packaging has also been rigorously tested to meet food safety, quality assurance, sustainability and ethical supply standards.Research conducted by Delivery Hero underlined that consumers want a more sus-tainable delivery ecosystem.

About 88 percent of customers in Qatar would consider ordering from restaurants that offer sustainable packaging, while two thirds of customers in Qatar would order more from a restaurant that offers sus-tainable packaging.

Tomaso Rodriguez, CEO of talabat, said that the organi-sation is committed to creating a sustainable delivery ecosystem.

“Globally, I think everyone can agree that a plastic free world is imperative. Statistics from the National Geographic, and Ellen McArthur Foundation show that currently 91 percent of the world's plastic is not recycled - and 70 percent of plastic ends up in landfills or the natural environment. By 2050, the amount of plastic in the ocean will outweigh fish. That is the enormity of the challenge that as a planet, we are facing,” he said.

Rodriguez reiterated that talabat's ultimate goal is to create a more sustainable delivery ecosystem regionally, by constantly introducing industry-leading standards and innovations, and that every product purchased through tal-abat's platform is delivered in sustainable packaging.

“However, this is not a short-term, or medium-term fix. Through introducing our Sustainable Packaging Pro-gramme to the region as a pilot, we are aiming to influence the reduction of food packaging wastage. Also, as part of Delivery Hero, which is intro-ducing this same initiative ini-tially in eight markets around the globe - Qatar, the UAE, Austria, Chile, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, and Singapore - we are able to produce this packaging at scale, with the aim of deploying 10 million units globally by the end of 2022, which makes it a cost-effective solution to normal packaging for our restaurant partners and vendors,” he added.

talabat has previously taken steps to reduce the use of plastic by introducing a“no-cutlery” default option at check-out for all orders made through the app, resulting in an incredible 74 percent increase in no-cutlery orders in just a few months in Qatar, and saving over 10 million plastic cutleries.

Additionally, talabat mart, tal-abat's own delivery-only 24/7 store, with no shop-front, and the region's first to deliver gro-ceries in less than 30 minutes, switched to biodegradable and reusable bags that consume four times less energy to produce.

Francisco De Sousa, Man-aging Director of talabat Qatar, commented:“We are thrilled to be among the first countries introducing sustainable pack-aging to the market, launching it in Qatar along with seven other countries worldwide. We are highly committed to Qatar's 2030 sustainability vision, and believe that every action to protect the environment is a step forward towards a better future. We encourage our partners and customers to adopt new habits through these sustainable packaging initia-tives and we look forward to developing Qatar's sustaina-bility market