A new sustainable food delivery platform

Abstract

In recent years, the food delivery business has expanded with great success and during the last months, pandemic have contributed to the growth of online food delivery. Consequently, with this fast growth of the online food delivery commerce, it’s important to analyze its environmental effects. In fact, the downside is represented by the enormous volume of waste produced by this market, consisting of packaging mostly made with materials such as paper, cardboard, plastic, and aluminum; a problem which, in relation to the volume of orders and the limits of separate collection that is not always efficient, leads to a quantity of unmanaged waste. This study aims to assess the impact of urban food delivery service packaging on the environment, taking the city of Palermo (Italy) as a place of investigation to promote the reasonable use of resources and confirm the ecological transition in the field of food delivery. The goal of this article is to create a service to be included in a new online food delivery platform that reduces the environmental impact and therefore differentiates it from other platforms on the market. Therefore, with the strategic design approach, we will try to sensitize the players in the food delivery chain to the use of a separate collection system that will improve the disposal of food delivery waste and will lead us towards a circular economy.