Mangaluru: With the dawn of food delivery services such as Zomato and Swiggy, people’s lives have become easier as they no longer have to struggle to get food delivered to them due to various reasons. However, homes are now filled with mounds of empty plastic containers which are then carelessly thrown in the garbage.
Mangaluru South MLA Vedavyas Kamath, in a bid to try and reduce the amount of plastic waste in the city, on Wednesday through a Facebook post, pleaded with the hoteliers of Mangaluru city to “pack the dishes (non gravy) ordered to be covered in Banana leaf”.
“Tulunad is famous for having dishes which is made with help of leaves, like Manjel aretha Gatti( Patholi), Moode, Gunda(kottige) etc, and we all know how the aroma is coz of it. Let us implement this in packaging, (sic)” the MLA added in the Facebook post.
He asked the food delivery apps to “support this cause by supporting our hoteliers of Mangalore in providing best benefit to them.”
He then clarified that he was merely requesting the food delivery services to co-operate with the initiative for the “betterment of Mangalore” and that this is not a rule.
Zomato and Swiggy responded to MLA Vedavya’s request soon after he uploaded the post.
Within a few hours of the MLA’s post going live, Jay from Swiggy replied writing, “That’s a great suggestion, Vedavyas! We will make sure to relay this to our restaurant partners and help implement it as soon as we can.”
“Hi Vedavyas! Thank you for your valuable suggestion. User experience is our top priority and we welcome all constructive ideas that help us improve our services. We will take this up with our team so that we can start it as soon as possible,” Zomato replied.
Many netizens have praised the MLA’s initiative, some saying that it was good that he proposed an alternative to using plastic containers instead of just passing negative comments.
Facebook user Athena Rebello replied, “Best thing I’ve read in a long time.”
User VJ Nithin responded, “Wow… great initiative Vedavyas Kamath sir.”
Arvind Kotian, another user questioned the logistics for the proposal writing, “Good initiative. This will have a increased demand for banana leaves. My only concern is, is it possible for our farmers to provide such huge quantity of banana leaves 365 days? A banana plantation requires lot of water facility. Other than rainy season will our farmers are able to fulfill such huge demand?”
“Great initiative Mr. Kamath. A request to others: Alone, Mr. Vedavvyas Kamath sir can’t change everything. It should be our duty as well that when we see things that aren’t environment friendly, we say.. Remember guys, if there is no consumption/usage then there won’t be a production. Slowly but certainly, we the citizens of Earth, can bring a healthy change… I have personally stopped using car and bike and started using cycle to work… Think of small things like this that will surely have a greater impact on the environment…” user Fazeel Ahmed replied.
As of now, Zomato already has an option on their app for a plastic-less delivery. This option has been present for a while and appears right below the “Don’t ring the bell!” option. These two options appear on the same screen where the bill is shown.
