Brazil is the fourth country that discards the most plastic in the world, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). There are 13 million tons per year, of which only 150 thousand tons are recycled.
To help combat the problem, iFood made a public commitment in 2021 to reduce the percentage of plastic used by 50% in delivery and allocate everything else for recycling.
And one of the initiatives to encourage the reduction of plastic use is the Friends of Nature program, also created in 2021. On the one hand, restaurants that adhere to this action do not send disposable plastic items in deliveries (unless customers ask).
On the other hand, consumers can choose the option on the iFood app to receive their order without plastic cutlery.
Result: since 2021, more than 360 million orders made on the iFood app have been delivered without single-use plastic items. With this, establishments are preventing 130 tons of single-use plastic from being discarded every month, on average.
And the campaign was a success: more than 90% of the 300,000 restaurants registered on the platform joined Amigos da Natureza — and 80% of customers prefer the “no disposable cutlery” option on the iFood app.
More initiatives for less plastic
Stopping sending plastic cutlery is not the only way for restaurants on iFood to make their operations more sustainable.
At iFood Decola —an education platform for restaurants—, entrepreneurs have a knowledge trail about Amigos da Natureza, with tips to make their business more sustainable.
Furthermore, to meet its objective of reducing the use of plastic, iFood has been investing in the development of sustainable packaging for delivery. In 2022, iFood financed the production of around 900 thousand sustainable packaging and in 2023, it will offer several solutions for restaurants, through the iFood Shop.
The company also joined, in July 2021, to the #DeLivreDePlástico commitment, organized by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and Oceana, the largest non-governmental, non-profit organization focused on protecting our oceans.
iFood is the only delivery company in Brazil to adhere to this commitment, and has adopted actions to, by 2025, reduce not only the use of disposable plastic items but also the use of bags, plastic packaging and sachets.
