GrabFood doubles down on sustainability with 'No cutlery' option

GrabFood is working to reduce single-use plastic cutlery by introducing the "No cutlery" toggle for all GrabFood orders, calling on consumers to opt for no-cutlery when ordering food. The cutlery option is set to "opt-out" as a default and customers who require cutlery will need to proactively choose to include it in their order.

This is part of GrabFood's long-term sustainability plan which will see it work closely with its ecosystem of restaurant-partners, delivery-partners and consumers to reduce the impact on the environment by advocating more environmentally-friendly and sustainable business solutions. GrabFood first piloted this option for selected restaurants early this year. According to the company, results from the pilot indicated that almost 60% of orders from the selected restaurants opted not to receive single-use plastic cutlery.

GrabFood is also creating the Green Fund, setting aside 10 cents until December 2019 towards the fund for every order that customers opt for no single-use plastic cutlery. The fund will eventually be channeled towards supporting its restaurant-partners, especially small, micro-entrepreneurs and medium-sized restaurants, to kick-start their efforts to adopt eco-friendly packaging at a better cost price. This is while the company works towards assisting to source for eco-friendly packaging suitable the restaurant-partners' needs.

Meanwhile, it also signed the "No Plastic in Nature by 2030", a Regional Plastic ACTion Platform (PACT) with WWF, reinforcing its commitment to be a more eco-friendly business. Through this partnership with WWF, GrabFood will be introducing several initiatives and educational toolkits to assist its restaurant-partners to adopt more sustainable business practices and packaging.

In future, GrabFood will also launch other initiatives such as working with various NGOs on a long-term education and awareness programme on how its community of consumers, restaurants and delivery-partners can play their part to collectively make a true impact in our endeavours for a more sustainably society. In addition, GrabFood also hopes to be able to work with potential vendors and suppliers of eco-packaging to make it more easily available at a much more cost-efficient price such as as reusable tiffins or wheatstraw food containers.

Grab Malaysia's country head Sean Goh said it wants to facilitate positive change in the industry by encouraging partners, both consumers and restaurant-partners, to join the company in making a firm commitment to reduce single-use plastic cutlery. Goh added that going green requires the effort of the entire community combined and thus wants to be able to work with relevant parties in the community to identify more environmentally-friendly and sustainable solutions for the food industry to continue growing without further impact to the environment.

"These initiatives are just the start of our long term-green roadmap, and we hope to also work alongside government and relevant agencies to deliver on their vision of a 'Zero Single-Use Plastics 2018-2030'," he said.

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