Abstract
In today’s society, consumers’ food needs can be satisfied by catering e-commerce platforms. However, the plastic pollution of tableware and packaging caused by a large number of catering orders every day has always been an unsolved environmental problem. (1) Background: At present, China’s three largest catering platforms, Meituan, Eleme and Baidu, receive 20 million takeout orders daily and consume about 60 million plastic products. Plastic pollution will have a sustained impact on the environment. (2) Methods: In this study, we use literature research and case analysis. We use Meituan’s takeout food as an example. We studied the takeout business growth, status of online takeout in the treatment of plastic packaging, harm to environment, humans and animals, as well as specific solutions. (3) Results: There are four main reasons which contribute to the plastic packaging pollution (i.e., high recycling cost, difficulty to deal with mixed plastic packaging, low effectiveness of collecting plastic packing, and immature technology and treatment to incinerate and landfill catering plastic waste). (4) Conclusion: Our findings suggest that regulators, takeout platforms and consumers, which have corresponding responsibilities in the environmental protection consumption of online food, are supposed to work together to get rid of the online takeout pollution for achieving sustainable consumption. Not only is government legislation needed to improve the waste management system and encourage the exploration of new intelligent waste classification tools, but platforms, businesses and users should enhance the environmental awareness of online takeout packaging pollution as well. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications are also discussed.
Highlights
As global residents begin to get used to life during a pandemic, more people choose to order food online and have it delivered to their homes
(3) Results: There are four main reasons which contribute to the plastic packaging pollution
(4) Conclusion: Our findings suggest that regulators, takeout platforms and consumers, which have corresponding responsibilities in the environmental protection consumption of online food, are supposed to work together to get rid of the online takeout pollution for achieving sustainable consumption
Summary
As global residents begin to get used to life during a pandemic, more people choose to order food online and have it delivered to their homes. A British survey shows that 36% of British people feel they were forced to use more plastics. In Bangkok, 3432 tons of plastic waste were thrown away every day in. April 2020, higher than the average of 2115 tons thrown away every day in 2019. Among these plastics, 80% were daily plastic waste such as takeout packaging. In January 2020, India began to ban major stores to provide disposable plastic bags. Under the impact of the epidemic, the use of plastic bags is expected to rise by 30%. According to the Federal Environmental Research Institute, plastic consumption in India increased by 62%
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