My free (sustainability) advice to food-delivery aggregators and platforms

A subtle appeal

Ah! it was Friday at last.

We love Fridays for the reason that they bring a pause in our busy lives, a time to take a break from our corporate lives, a chance to briefly pursue our “hobbies” (things which we once dearly wanted to pursue as a career; LOL).

It was a usual Friday for me too. I had tired myself by doing absolutely nothing the entire day, so ordering food was imperative. Also, this week it had been a full week of experimentation with home-cooked dishes, I just wanted to sink into the bed, eat food as I binge watch Netflix.

So after a quick glance over the menu on Deliveroo, I decided to order Dal Makhni and Laccha Paranthas.

20 minutes thence, our order arrived. My husband, who was slapping his stomach now, promptly ran to the door and received the order. The moment he returned to the bed, I snatched the packet from him to take in the aroma. The insides of that brown bag smelled like that we get in a mini-dhaba.

As we are watching Spartacus these days, we often cringe as one of the character’s body splits open, thick red blood oozes out and entrails splatters all over the screen. Especially during dinner, we turn our faces away, trying to avoid seeing some disgusting scene while eating.

But this time, the view of Spartacus slicing someone’s brains in the background didn’t seem to bother us. Not once did we raise our heads to glance at the computer screen, for the most beautiful sight (of Dal Makhni) was before us. Anyway, let’s move on because this article is about neither of these things. It’s about how an idea began to take form inside my head while washing utensils, the next day.

As I was washing the utensils including the takeaway boxes from last night and placing them on the drying rack, I began contemplating whether to keep them or throw them (because by now I have accumulated many of these takeaway boxes). The thought of throwing them away as well as keeping them would both bruised my eco-conscience. Both pointed out that ME being part of the plastic problem.

But as I deliberated keeping the boxes or not, I realized, neither of the options was solving…