Benagluru: Plastic ban hits food delivery firms

Bengaluru: The current boom in food tech start-ups in the city has led to ordering food online becoming a way of life for Bengalureans.
But now they have been hit by a blow called the ‘plastic ban.’

These food tech companies are having a tough time finding alternatives to plastic containers, which they are using to deliver different kinds of foods. They feel the government should have come up with appropriate alternatives before going ahead with the ban.

The state government notified the ban on March 11. It was brought into effect immediately. This sudden ban has shocked the entire food tech industry, which was not prepared for something like this.

Rejesh Nair, CEO of Hungermeals.com, a food tech company launched just a couple of months ago, says, “We are a new entrant in the market and to have received such a ban when we have already made big purchases and have huge stocks, makes it very difficult to manage. Despite all the hurdles, we are talking with vendors and people from the industry and are on lookout for alternatives for plastic food parcel containers, but we have not been able to find anything that fits our budget.”

Devesh, the founder of ‘Baba Fattoosh’, is also on the lookout for options. He says, “We came across paper boxes, mostly used as ice-cream cups, which we are still considering as we have to check if they can handle gravy items. They are way over our budget. The government should have come up with options for the food industry so that supplies of such items are easy to find in the market. When this happens,  definitely the price will be less.”

Ramya Sateesh, who heads marketing at ‘Cookaroo’ says, “The government should have given some alternatives before such a ban was brought into force. We are looking at boxes made of sugarcane but since most of our items are liquid the boxes start leaking and so it’s not practical to use them.”