Located in the heart of the picturesque Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney’s The Palm House this morning became witness to the launch of a historic multi-year partnership between Uber Eats and Planet Ark designed to help Australian restaurants move towards more sustainable packaging.
Lead Image: L-R – Rebecca Gilling & Bec Nyst
The partnership is an important step towards helping Uber Eats restaurant merchants transition to reusable, recyclable, or compostable packaging options by 2030. The event was catered by popular restaurants Lox in a Box and Cali Press, which have both taken massive steps toward a more sustainable business model.
The partnership will provide clarity to busy restaurant partners on sustainable packaging and utilise relationships with suppliers to improve the economics of sustainable packaging. Uber Eats will also reward restaurant partners who employ more sustainable practices with the aim of stimulating the adoption of sustainable packaging. “We will reward businesses who are using who are using more sustainable packaging with enhanced visibility in our app, and with specific incentives and subsidies,” Uber Eats ANZ general manager Bec Nyst said at the launch event.
The first milestone between the two organisations has been a consultation on a framework developed for Uber Eats by the University of Technology Sydney’s Institute for Sustainable Futures. The peer-reviewed framework identifies whether a restaurant’s packaging meets certain sustainability criteria, including what is considered reusable, recyclable or compostable within the framework.
Uber Eats is also announcing up to $13m in funding over the next three years to stimulate more sustainable packaging uptake through programs and subsidies. This follows a pilot initiative in the last quarter of 2023, where Uber Eats offered all small to medium-sized businesses access to $1m in funding to support the purchase of more sustainable packaging through packaging partner Detpak.
“We’ve already seen the incredible impact our technology can have on the restaurant ecosystem. Since making cutlery opt-in, rather than being included by default, we estimate eaters have helped reduce the equivalent weight of four jumbo jets worth of plastic forks, spoons and the like ending up in Australian landfill,” said Nyst.
“As we have increased our investment in this area and as we progress our partnership with Planet Ark, we’ll look to identify additional system changes to accelerate the uptake of more sustainable packaging options across Australia. We’ll use our scale and relationships with suppliers to improve the unit economics on more sustainable packaging and finally we will explore rewarding restaurants investing in this type of packaging with enhanced visibility on our platform”.
“There is increasing expectation from consumers, governments and the community to reduce the environmental impact of packaging. With the recent announcement that the federal government will become the new regulator of packaging standards, mandating how packaging is designed, setting minimum recycled content requirements, and prohibiting harmful chemicals being used, all ladder up to encouraging developments,” said Planet Ark’s CEO Rebecca Gilling.
“But while this is a positive outcome, there is still much to do, and there is a clear need to provide support to small businesses – including restaurants – on how to reduce packaging waste best. We’re delighted to be able to announce a multi-year effort with Uber Eats to help them assist their restaurant partners – and to lift the standard for the sector more broadly”.
Today’s announcement follows the release of the Restaurant Pulsecheck Report, which revealed sustainability was a key focus for restaurant owners, with seven in ten industry respondents citing it as the most appealing social cause for customers.
Uber Eats is committed to working in partnership with industry experts, like Planet Ark, government and business leaders to share knowledge and address challenges in the packaging lifecycle. Allowing restaurants to continue to focus on their core business – incredible hospitality and inventive cuisine.
“Uber Eats welcomes the Federal Government’s recent announcement to regulate packaging standards as it will provide national certainty and consistency for businesses. This is a positive signal for restaurants looking to shift to better packaging options. We know many restaurants are already making significant investments in packaging, and a unified national approach delivering consistency on minimum recycled content requirements, will only empower these larger enterprises to continue their investments,” said Nyst.
“We believe the most significant impact Uber Eats can have in the immediate term is to educate and support small to medium-sized businesses working in the restaurant and catering industry. This is a multi-year journey, and by starting with Planet Ark’s educational resources, we’ll endeavour to help restaurants make the shift to more sustainable packaging”.
As part of the program, Uber Eats will publish the educational materials developed with Planet Ark on its website – making the assets available to all restaurants – even those not on the platform. Uber Eats will provide research to the Restaurant & Catering Association to ensure materials are accessible to as many stakeholders across the restaurant ecosystem as possible.
