Talabat unveils new initiative to reduce plastic waste & carbon emission

Talabat, the leading online food delivery, and q-commerce platform, has launched a Sustainable Packaging Program to minimize plastic waste and carbon emissions across the region, starting with pilot operations in Qatar and the UAE.

According to the statement, the launch is part of Delivery Hero’s (Talabat’s parent company) global rollout of the program, across eight markets.

Talabat’s new packaging, which will be available for adoption by a select group of restaurant partners and vendors, is 100 percent plant-based and free of perfluoroalkoxy-alkanes (PFA), which are known as “forever chemicals” as they cannot be broken down by nature.

“Globally, I think everyone can agree that a plastic-free world is imperative. Statistics from the National Geographic and Ellen MacArthur Foundation show that currently 91 perfect 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. Regionally, our ultimate goal is to create a more sustainable delivery ecosystem by constantly introducing industry-leading standards and innovations, and that every product purchased through our talabat platform be delivered in sustainable packaging.”

“Also, as part of Delivery Hero, who are introducing this same initiative initially 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, to deploy 10mn units globally by the end of 2022, which makes it a cost-effective solution to normal packaging for our restaurant partners and vendors,” Mr. Rodriguez further added.

Talabat has previously taken steps to minimize plastic use by introducing a “no-cutlery” default option at check-out for all orders placed through the app, which resulted in a 74 percent rise in no-cutlery orders in just a few months in Qatar, saving over 10 million plastic cutleries.

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