Date: 18 September 2020, 13:30 – 16:00 Bangkok time

Time: 14.00 – 17.30 (Bangkok time)

This E-roundtable, organized under the SEA circular Roundtable Series for Collective Actions for Less Plastic Wasted, and attended by representatives from the food delivery services sector across Asia, was organized by SEA circular, a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) initiative.

The E-roundtable had the following targets:

1. Experience sharing: How steps taken with industry players can be more impactful
2. Pre-competitive collective actions: Developing synergies and consensus
3. Best practice aggregation:  Replicating actions proven to work by others
4. Industry-wide commitment: Advancing pledges and escalating industry-wide action

Operations and sustainability representatives from the region discussed best practices, lessons learned and incentives for aggregate industry action. The aim was to support and urgently scale-up plastic waste reduction initiatives and commitments, especially crucial during the current COVID-19 pandemic when the use of single-use plastic is deemed necessary for health and safety purposes. The E-roundtable event explored solutions for more challenging issues, including working and integrating backwards to the value chain, so as to impact and possibly influence the use of excessive packaging and plastic items coming from restaurants and food suppliers that avail of their services.

Discussions also included current trends and opportunities to manage plastic use better, customer expectations, regulatory requirements, business profitability and a level playing field. Ultimately, the E-roundtable served to find the lowest hanging fruit that could be acted on by the food delivery and e-commerce industry of South-East Asia that can be accomplished with the help of SEA circular and partners, building on the SEA circular business transformation theory of change.

For more information, please contact:

Maggie Lee maggie.lee@un.org or Martha Fernandez fernandez21@un.org