Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami has announced an implementation of plastic ban across the state, effective 2019, on World Environment Day.
As per the move, the ban will be on all single-use and non-biodegradable plastics of all sizes (microns), and instead of this, the food suppliers are asked to use natural environmental-friendly products like lotus leaves and banana leaves.
This ban will mainly impact the food industry, as the new regulation will ban the use of plastic papers, plates, straws, covers and cups. Now the question is how do the food e-commerce firms plan to adopt these rules?
TNM asked a set of questions to Swiggy, Zomato and Uber Eats to know about their plans regarding this new rule. They were asked about what kind of alternatives to plastic they will use, how they are planning to engage with restaurants on their platform. And above all how this going to impact on their cost?
Food ordering and delivery platform Swiggy has introduced Swiggy Packaging Assist, in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Pune, to allow its restaurant partners to be aware of eco-friendly options.
In response to the above questions, Swiggy said, “This marketplace will be launched in Chennai this month and will provide our restaurant partners in the city access to eco-friendly and innovative packaging materials made of materials such as paper, cornstarch and bagasse. We not only want to enable our restaurant partners to be compliant with the plastic ban in the state but also want to look at addressing the issue at the root of it.”
Zomato said that “it has always been in favour of the move, as the long-term public good far outweighs the short-term hassles.” Zomato also added, “The decision is for the greater good of everyone in the longer run. In fact, we will soon be launching our eco-friendly packing range. The alternatives to plastic need to be robust, leak-proof and reusable, and an aggregated demand through Zomato will help manufacturers reduce the cost of these items to a comparable range with plastic packaging materials.”
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