First experiment in delivering delicious food to your home in reusable packaging

Meal delivery service Deliveroo, Stad Hasselt and environmental organisation Recycling Netwerk Benelux will be working on a circular solution to have meals delivered in reusable packaging over the coming year.

The project is a first in Belgium and a pioneer in Europe. None of the major meal delivery services currently uses reusable packaging. Anyone who has a pizza or a hamburger delivered to their home always receives it in single-use packaging. But after just a few minutes of use, the packaging already ends up in the bin and is rarely recycled.

What is unique about this project is that it is tested in practice right away. Residents of Hasselt will be able to have meals delivered in reusable packaging from the autumn, wherever and whenever they want. The initiative responds to growing concerns regarding single-use plastic packaging.

With the 'Deliveround' project, Deliveroo, Stad Hasselt and Recycling Netwerk want to show and prove that it is indeed possible to have a meal delivered in reusable packaging, without losing comfort and taste.

The project targets the entire process, from ordering to packaging and delivery. In a complex system where single-use is still the norm today, we want to retain as many raw materials as possible. The team is researching what is the most suitable packaging and the most optimal logistics system for consumers, restaurants, delivery services and the environment.

Project manager Inge Luyten of Recycling Netwerk Benelux: “How can we set up an efficient and competitive system of reusable packaging? What needs to change in the product, the delivery system and the broader context in order for delivery and return to work well and simply, for the restaurants, the delivery drivers and the consumer? Those are the questions we are looking for answers to with this project. As an environmental organisation campaigning against the plastic waste mountain, we want to use this initiative to contribute to a solution, in cooperation with a business. Because you cannot set up a circular economy without involving businesses in it”.

Meal delivery service Deliveroo is the connecting link here. It connects consumers with the city's restaurants via its application. Rodolphe Van Nuffel, spokesperson at Deliveroo: “Deliveroo has fundamentally changed the way people eat. People order from the best restaurants in town when and where they want. With this unique project, Deliveroo wants to contribute to an even wider change and actively participate in the debate around sustainability. We are also there to support our restaurant partners to become even more sustainable and to enable customers to make environmentally conscious choices. This is the positive role we can play as a growing company.”

According to Joost Venken, Alderman for Environment, Sustainability and Circular Economy in Hasselt, the city is an obvious laboratory for this experiment. He says: “With reusable shot glasses during the Jeneverfeesten or banning plastic glasses and cutlery during the Amuse park festival, we have long been pioneering the sustainability debate in Hasselt. Our objective is therefore clear: the transition from a linear to a circular economy where nothing goes to waste. This project fits perfectly within this ambition.”

“And that awareness is needed”, adds Laurence Libert, Alderman for Hygiene and Waste Policy. “Indeed, single-use plastics are a global problem. They are made to last forever. That is why it is better to avoid these single-use plastics as much as possible. During the month of May, we try to make Hasselts people aware of their plastic use and offer all kinds of tips to reduce plastic use. These actions are part of a larger waste awareness campaign that Hasselt will focus on heavily in the coming years, not only for residents but also for merchants and visitors. This experiment aligns seamlessly with our waste policy goals, and we are therefore happy to throw our weight behind this initiative.”

In November 2018, Vlaanderen Circulair awarded a project grant to Deliveround, allowing the project to get underway.