Jon Dunbar is a copy editor at The Korea Times, as well as editor of the Foreign Community page and curator of the Korea Times Archive. If you have suggestions for possible articles, or wish to contribute articles yourself, contact jdunbar@koreatimes.co.kr.
Shuttle's #NoCutlery food delivery service cuts back on plastic waste
By Jon Dunbar
By Jon Dunbar
As the Korean government becomes more serious about cutting back plastic waste, food delivery companies are scrambling for ways to make their businesses more eco-friendly.
, is way ahead of the curve.
The delivery company, which is partnered with over 450 local restaurants, bakeries and grocery stores that don't offer their own delivery services around Seoul's Yongsan, Mapo, Seodaemun and Jung districts, introduced the #NoCutlery option last September, allowing customers to opt out of receiving disposable cutlery along with their orders.
“We began the initiative to reduce plastic cutlery consumption long before the government called upon changes because our company believes, environmentally, it was the right thing to do,” Jason Boutte, Shuttle co-founder, said in an interview with The Korea Times.
“We also made the move because we listened to feedback from our customers; it turns out many of our customers are conscious about the environment and want to do as much as possible to reduce their footprint.”
Users of the delivery app see a toggle next to “I don't need plastic cutlery,” which they can turn off to conserve waste.
Although Shuttle added the feature without fanfare, customers began requesting the feature immediately. In the first month, 4 percent of orders came with the #NoCutlery request. The number continued to climb, reaching 22 percent in January. Boutte estimates the feature has saved 35,000 units of disposable cutlery.
Boutte hopes in the future to change the “opt out” option to “opt in,” setting the default to no cutlery delivered.
“This policy is starting to gain traction around the world but first we need our customers to get used to the fact they have the option for cutlery,” Boutte said. “We look at the opt out button as a stepping stone towards implementing the opt in function.”
Boutte hopes to reduce waste further by helping restaurants reduce packaging and source safer materials. Currently, packaging is decided on by the restaurants themselves.
“However, we offer consulting on packaging if restaurants don't have it or if we feel the packaging the restaurants have in place won't hold its integrity during the delivery process,” he said.
As a further step, he hopes to source renewable materials made from polylactic acid, and provide eco-friendly packaging for client restaurants to purchase from Shuttle at a price competitive with environmentally harmful petroleum-based plastics.
“We'd love to hear from packaging companies or nonprofit organizations interested in partnering with us on this initiative,” Boutte said. “We will need like-minded allies in order to make our goal a reality.”
The Ministry of Environment announced Feb. 11 it was conducting a survey on plastic waste in food deliveries, in a step leading to regulations for the industry on plastic use. Currently there are no regulations, and the ministry hopes delivery service providers will voluntarily work toward reducing plastic, rather than starting out with strict regulations.
“We love the idea of the government nudging people in this direction, but from a business standpoint the government should find a balance between pressure towards environmental protection and letting alternatives evolve in the marketplace,” Boutte said.
“It's important that the government gives businesses and customers time to adapt and come up with new and creative solutions. If the price of ecologically harmful packaging would slowly increase or if the government gave tax credits for businesses using eco-friendly products, both options would greatly help the whole sector move towards greener alternatives.”
Shuttle was founded in 2016 in a merger of Y-Not Takeout and Bird Riders Delivery, both Itaewon-based food delivery services launched in 2014. Rather than holding each other back in competition, the two small companies decided to band together in one mid-sized company, according to Boutte.
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