Uber Eats and Visa have partnered to help small and medium-sized restaurants offer sustainable packaging solutions.
The companies will make $1 million accessible to eligible Uber Eats restaurants in New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris and Madrid.
“Single-use packaging is used in nearly every takeout order worldwide, with Visa, our restaurant partner, we can work towards reducing waste and helping small businesses thrive,” said Pierre-Dmitri Gore-Coty, SVP and global head of delivery for Uber.
A 2022 study by the U.S. National Restaurant Association found that transitioning to sustainable packaging is a priority among many restaurants, but the cost—and continued supply chain issues faced by the hospitality industry, make it difficult to implement, especially for small businesses.
“With consumers continuing to express desires to live more sustainably, businesses across sectors have a notable opportunity to adopt more sustainable practices to meet this demand,” said Douglas Sab, Visa’s chief sustainability officer. “Visa is excited to expand on our partnership with Uber Eats to help small businesses not be left out of the sustainable business transformations this moment requires.”
Larger chains are increasingly adopting waste-conscious solutions. Coffee, doughnut QSR Tim Hortons recently rolled out compostable, wooden and fiber cutlery in its Canada locations. The company is also trialing a fiber, hot beverage lid that is plastic-free and recyclable. The move eliminates the use of an estimated 90 million single-use plastics a year.
In addition, various companies are designing packaging alternatives made from renewable sources. Such as London’s NotPla, which uses seaweed and minerals to create decomposable plastic-like films and Germany’s Arekapak, which developed packaging from sun-dried palm leaves.
Details on the Uber, Visa partnership, including how restaurants can qualify and apply for funding will be shared on Uber Eats website in the coming months.
