Are food delivery services destroying our future?

One of the phenomenon of China's rapidly expanding online economy is the rise of food delivery platforms such as Meituan, Eleme (also known as Hungry Now) and Baidu Takeout.

It's estimated that 20 million food orders per day are placed on those three platforms alone, with 600 million registered accounts among them.

Food delivery riders in Guilin, Guangxi on July 25, 2017. [Photo: IC]

But while it's meant convenience and jobs for millions, voices are being raised on social media that "Food delivery is destroying our next generation."

Chief concerns are environmental, with fears the industry uses too many plastic bags and containers.

According to a Xinhua news agency investigation, if the food containers used each day were stacked one on top of the other, they would stretch 7 times the distance to the International Space Station. The plastic bags used would cover 168 full-size football pitches every day.

Also, as many of the containers are contaminated with oil, they are expensive to recycle, and have to be disposed along with regular household waste, the investigation says.

But the arguments are far from clear cut. One netizen notes that "Food delivery is NOT destroying our next generation" as it only produces a very small percentage of plastic waste in China. According to China Environmental Newspaper, the total amount of waste produced by food delivery in China certainly looks quite shocking, when you learn that the industry produces 350 tons of waste a day.

A food delivery rider in China. [Photo: IC]

However, and article on China's social media WeChat, says the total plastic production of China in 2016 was 75 million tons, of which food delivery bags and shopping bags together account for only 2 million tons, while food packaging and agricultural wrappings added up to 1.3 million tons.

While the waste contributed by food delivery services in China shouldn't be ignored, it's perhaps unfair to describe it as the "destroyer of the next generation", and there are things that can be done to improve this industry while we continue to enjoy the benefits it brings us.

Last month, an environment organization in China's Chongqing sued the major three platforms for their pollution of the environment, while the platforms have also made changes to their services to allow customers to choose whether or not to ask for chopsticks.

Some netizens say food delivery has existed for decades, and has simply been turbocharged in the smartphone era to become one of the country's fiercest online battlefronts and fastest-growing industries backed by the Internet. That in turn has added to the expectation in China that you can get what you want quickly at the press of a smartphone screen. The industry has attracted billions of dollars worth of investments and provided a large number of job opportunities.