Just Eat will trial seaweed-based sauce sachets for six weeks with restaurant partner The Fat Pizza in Southend. The sachets can be discarded through home compost or in normal household bins and decompose in six weeks.

With more than 11 billion plastic condiment sachets sold globally, Just Eat will assess the feasibility of introducing the sachets – used by The Fat Pizza for ketchup and garlic and herb dips – across its network of 29,000 UK restaurant partners.

Just Eat’s UK managing director Graham Corfield said: “At Just Eat, we’re committed to helping reduce the impact of the takeaway industry on plastic waste levels and we’ve already taken measures to drive more environmentally-friendly behaviour among our restaurant partners and customers. We’re delighted to now be taking our commitment a step further through our partnership with Skipping Rocks Lab. 

“The Ooho Sauce Sachets trial and the results from it will form an important part of our ongoing work to develop innovative and credible alternatives to traditional single-use plastic packaging currently in use across the takeaway sector.”

Customer concerns

The sachets, created in partnership with packaging development company Skipping Rocks Lab, form part of a wider commitment introduced by Just Eat in March 2018 to combat a reliance on single-use plastics.

Just Eat will work with the Sustainable Restaurant Association to develop a series of resources for the company’s restaurant partners to help them and their customers reduce plastic usage.

The company also stopped selling single-use plastics in its shop in March and is trialling a pre-ticked box on its app and website to encourage consumers to opt out of receiving certain plastic items. To date, 20% of users requested lower volumes of plastic with their food order.

Away from plastics, Just Eat has rolled out discounts on low-carbon vehicles and renewable energy contracts to encourage its restaurant partners to lower emissions across the UK. The company partnered with e-bike manufacturer Eskuta to offer a 45% discount on electric scooters for food deliveries for its restaurant partners. Companies can save around £750 on the vehicles, which usually cost in excess of £1,400.

edie’s Responsible Retail 2018

Solving key challenges – including modern slavery, supply chain involvement and the circular economy – will be one of the key themes of edie’s third annual Responsible Retail conference, taking place on 20 September 2018 at 99 City Road, London.

The full-day event has been designed for the retailers, sustainability professionals and key stakeholders that are looking for the information, insight and inspiration required to seize the sustainability opportunity.

Find out more about Responsible Retail 2018 and register to attend here.

Matt Mace

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