But he realized that every time he finished a meal, he was left with a lot of rubbish. According to a survey by the Overbrook Foundation, a human rights and environmental advocacy organization, New Yorkers consumed more than 23 billion disposable food service items in 2016. To assist alleviate the situation, Farbiarz launched DeliverZero, a zero-waste delivery service aimed at reducing the city’s rising mountain of takeaway garbage. With two pals, Lauren Sweeney and Byron Sorrells, Farbiarz founded his Brooklyn-based firm in 2019. Continue reading From your grocery receipt, an Irish business can calculate your carbon impact. Customers purchase food from their favorite New York City restaurants via the DeliverZero app or website, and their food is delivered in the plastic, reusable containers provided by the company. Customers keep the containers and return them to a DeliverZero delivery courier the next time they purchase food from them. To date, the program has attracted at least 135 restaurants from three of New York City’s five boroughs. DeliverZero, like other food delivery firms, charges restaurants a commission on each order, and the ordering and receiving experience is identical to what users are used to with other apps. Farbiarz and his co-founders said they want to compete with the big food delivery companies. “We created our service fairly consciously to have the look and feel of Grubhub, Seamless, Postmates (and) Uber Eats — both for the customer and for the establishment,” Farbiarz said. DeliverZero’s reusable polypropylene and BPA-free containers make a tremendous difference. Customers will be fined $3.25 per box plus tax if they do not return the containers to a courier or a DeliverZero restaurant within six weeks of their first order. Aside from this potential fee, DeliverZero clients will incur no additional costs. DeliverZero, according to Spiro Hiotis, owner of Athena Mediterranean Cuisine in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood, is a win-win situation: DeliverZero gives away its reusable boxes for free, saving him money, and the business charges a smaller commission fee than some of its larger competitors, he claims. During the epidemic, takeaway and delivery orders at Athena have exploded, according to Hiotis. “It’s fantastic — people are ordering all the time,” Hiotis, who founded the Greek eatery 13 years ago, said. “With deliveries and takeouts, we were always busy. However, it is now at least 40% higher (than before the pa “”demic”)” DeliverZero, according to Farbiarz, will let customers see single-use items in a new light. “Once you start thinking about single-use, you’ll notice it everywhere,” he explained. “Our clients’ eyes are opened to the single-use container in the grocery store when they see that they can reuse takeout containers. It makes you realize that you might have worn a clothing three times and are considering tossing it away.” Here’s what happens to the products you return via the internet. DeliverZero isn’t the only company attempting to solve the takeout waste issue. Customers pay a monthly fee to use GO Box’s containers, which they may use to pick up food from more than 100 restaurants in the Portland, Oregon area. Green-to-Go, established in Durham, North Carolina, maintains a network of participating businesses and charges users a subscription fee that starts at $25 per year. It would be a big accomplishment just to reduce New York’s takeout waste, but DeliverZero has far higher ambitions. Farbiarz and his team want to continue expanding in New York over the next 18 months, as well as spread the service to Los Angeles and Amsterdam. In the long run, he hopes to create a more sustainable world by expanding the network of reusable containers that might be used in grocery shops, delis, and coffee kiosks. Farbiarz, who has two young girls, stated, “I think about my kids.” “I want kids to grow up in a world that is logical, responsible, and not warming,” says the author. Continue reading
