I frequently use Swiggy – a food delivery app. My usage surged in the week after shifting to a new home as my kitchen was not quite ready for use. It just struck me that the amount of plastic cutlery in the house has shot up, on account of items received along with my Swiggy orders.
I just wondered – since these deliveries are coming to a home, why do they need to include the plastic cutlery? Even when I lived by myself, I had a reasonably well-appointed kitchen, and most people have at least a spoon and plate available. I’ve seen Swiggy deliveries to people in my office on occasion, and in most offices, metal cutlery and non-disposable plates are made available to all employees. So why does Swiggy need to unnecessarily deliver hundreds of kilos of plastic flatware?
Problems like this occur when businesses focus too much on a “model” and completely ignore important areas such as sustainability and social responsibility. This is quite surprising, as Swiggy’s founders are all graduates from top management or technical institutes. But well, the Indian educational system is not known for sullying students’ minds with matters as squalid as morals, values, or social responsibility.
There are three super-simple fixes.
Solution One
Add a “cutlery not required” checkbox to the order page. The restaurant gets an alert on this order, and they don’t include cutlery in the packaging. This is the simplest solution, but I think many users would just ignore it (getting it free, so might as well…). Perhaps a few people like me would use it, but I do think there are better solutions.
Solution Two
A negative incentive is certain to fare better than Solution 1. Have a “cutlery required” checkbox and charge people INR 25 per set. I think this is just like what supermarkets here do with their fake biodegradable bags, only it will be more effective, as people ordering on Swiggy from home are not subject to the same pressures as the person with eleven kilos of veggies waiting at a Spencers’ checkout.
Solution Three
A sugarcoated negative incentive. Swiggy should tie up with a provider of biodegradable flatware and plates. Order these in large quantities and have them branded. Distribute them to all their “restaurant partners” or maintain stocks with “delivery partners”. When the Customer punches “cutlery required”, this special flatware will be included in the order at an extra charge.
This approach, though requiring more effort and expense, does have the most positive outcome in my opinion.
First, it solves the issue of unwanted cutlery.
Second, any cutlery obtained through Swiggy will be sustainable/eco-friendly.
Third, it has Swiggy branding on it and will give Swiggy’s promoters bragging rights for being “environment conscious” when they approach investors for their next round of funding.
Zudik.com 