Promoting reusable containers for takeaway food industries for reducing environmental impacts

Project Members
  • Principal Investigator
      Assistant Prof. Hsin-Tien Lin (NCKU)
  • Co-investigator
    1. Research Director, Monique Retamal (University of Technology Sydney)
    2. Assistant Prof. Eri Amasawa (The University of Tokyo)

Single-use plastic food containers are causing environmental pollutions and health concerns, but their consumption has increased significantly due to the modern lifestyle and the COVID situation. In Taiwan, the food takeaway and delivery industries experienced a 300% growth in one season, while similar takeaway food culture also exists in Japan (Bento). Reusable food container is a promising strategy to solve the single-use food containers problem as well as promoting circular economy. There are emerging businesses providing reusable food container services to replace single-use plastics, but their scale remains small. At the same time, Taiwan’s government is not promoting circular economy and policies on restricting single-use food containers in specific locations. However, the knowledge for adopting this change and the method for designing suitable business model is not available. This research aims to develop decision supporting tools for promoting reusable container business and related policy by (a) quantifying the environmental impact mitigation by reusable containers, (b) investigating the consumers preference on reusable containers and business models, and (c) identifying the driving factors and obstacles for reusable container business for future promotion. A comparison of environmental impact from different reusable containers and their according consumer preferences will be revealed. A decision supporting tools for designing reusable container business model will be developed considering environmental impact and consumer preferences. Also, the driving factors and obstacles for reusable container business will be listed for the policy intervention.