Pikkup
A service design proposal to reduce plastic waste in online food delivery platforms
Overview
The Key Problem & Proposed Solution
Every time an order is placed for delivery from a restaurant, it is packaged and delivered in plastic. Tens of thousands of orders being placed everyday, equals tens of thousands of plastic containers being used each time. How could an intervention be designed to curb the rapidly growing waste of single-use plastic in the food delivery industry?
Pikkup is the proposed integrated service provided by partnering with food delivery apps to introduce a parallel delivery system, wherein the consumers are encouraged to provide their own containers, in which their order is packaged at the restaurant and delivered to them.
The system comes into play in the minutes after an online order is placed with the food delivery app, and works in alignment with their delivery system. When the order is placed, a Pikkup agent is assigned to arrive at the customer’s location to collect their containers, and drop it off at the restaurant. The restaurant then parcels the prepared order in those containers, and thereafter, the process takes place as usual- the order is picked up by the food app’s own delivery agent and delivered to the customer.
Index
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The Challenge
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Ideation
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Iterations
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Final Idea
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Assumed User Personas
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Detailing The Proposed Service
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Wireframes
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Conclusion & Reflections
Index
Click on any of the topics to go directly to the relevant section
The Challenge
Identifying Key Areas of Plastic Waste
The task began with identifying the types of plastic waste currently affecting the planet, and possible areas of intervention. The initial process required an understanding of the priorities between Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, but the first and foremost aspect to convert into action should be to Refuse. Before the damage is done and needs to be dealt with, can it be stopped at the right time and can we therefore save resources that would otherwise go towards repairing the damage that has already occurred?
A Consumer-Oriented Society
The world is seeing technology advancements like never before, and for service providers, bringing convenience into their consumers' lives is taking precedence above all else. In the process of enabling convenience to the highest factor, other parts of the system fall from the priority list, bearing the brunt of the consequences of wanting to achieve maximum efficiency. Such short term plans for success includes the use of plastic wherever possible to reduce costs and thereby reduce prices, while not taking into account the dire repercussions of this decision long term. Our lives are filled with single-use and throwaway products, that exist solely to serve a need that is accomplished within minutes, and these products are subsequently rendered useless.
Key questions for the ideation process include:
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How much change is the consumer willing to adapt to, in order to implement a positive advancement towards a sustainable future?
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How can the consumer be made aware of the impact of their decisions?
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How can the system be designed to benefit both the current service provider, as well as their consumer base?
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How can the system be put into action with minimal behavioral changes required?
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What sacrifices will the consumer need to make in order to implement the proposed system?
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How aware are consumers currently about their own plastic footprint?
Ideation
Possible Interventions Within The Scope
Using the key questions mentioned above, I began ideating possible solutions for intervention to bring forth awareness and change within consumers. These ideas ranged from public installations to bring about consciousness among viewers, to replacements and interventions within existing systems.
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Iterations
Narrowing Down On Possible Interventions
Picking from the wide variety of ideations made, three possible interventions were narrowed down on the basis of feasibility and impact of change. These three ideas were then further dissected, highlighting the achievable variations within, and the challenges involved in execution.
Iteration 1: Tackling The Problem of Plastic Waste Due To Small Item Packaging
This type of plastic packing is found in most local shops and bakeries, where chips, baked goods, cakes and more are commonly individually packed in transparent polypropylene plastic. Such packing is found for even the smallest of items. Once the food is consumed, the packing is torn and not reusable, and is therefore discarded as waste.
Features & Variations
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Customers often purchase several small packets of the same item, this aspect could be changed by using one large plastic packing instead of say, three individual smaller packings.
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This could circumvent the common problem of lightweight plastics in landfills getting blown away from landfills and reaching water bodies. If the number of total bags were reduced and its sizes increases, the chances of them getting blown away could decrease.
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This intervention could be targeted towards households that make large and frequent purchases from such local shops and bakeries, such as families with young children.
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Such households typically make purchases every couple weeks, and local shops can store and use large bags for their orders.
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Since this idea still uses single-use plastic bags, another variation could be to approach these bulk buying households and offer a subscription model wherein we use large resealable plastic bags to parcel their desired items, and offer to deliver the order to their doorstep as an incentive. When the next purchase is to be made, we can take back the same resealable bags, and use them to package the new order. This way, the bags are sturdier and can be uses multiple times.
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In the above mentioned variation, the model exists between our service and the purchasing households, and the store itself is not involved in the system. However, this method could incentivize shops to store and sell their goods in resealable bags if they see that customers want this option. This would also reduce costs for both parties as they can reuse these bags for their purchases.
Challenges
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The cost of our service picking up and dropping order items from the shop to the customer's home might be a cost they are unwilling to bear
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Customers may not deem it necessary enough to adopt, and pay an extra price for
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The service relies on the customer returning empty resealable bags to us after use, so that we can use them again to parcel the order, but what about the cleaning process in between? Will the customer be willing to clean them every time?
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The local stores may not appreciate another entity acting as a middleman and making money from their customer base
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Could these stores receive some sort of recognition for aiding in the reduction of plastic packing, and could that act as an incentive for them?
Iteration 2: Tackling The Problem of Non-Recyclable Mixed Material Packaging
All common chips, biscuits and other packing involve plastics that are non-recyclable because they are made of a mixture of materials. The glossy finish on all these packages are due to the mix of metal and plastic- aluminium laminated with polypropylene, known as metalized polypropylene or low-density polyethylene film.
Features & Variations
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Since these plastics after use cannot be recycled, they can be repurposed into other usable products.
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These plastics could be cleaned and repurposed into creating grocery bags. These stitched bags could then be offered to local grocery stores to provide to their customers in place of single-use plastic bags, or even cloth bags that are now commonly provided.
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The use of these bags would educate viewers of the amount of plastic waste generated through commodities such as those.
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A variation of this, could be to take used plastic, sterilize and repurpose them into packing for fruits and other fresh vegetables that need to have airtight plastic packing. Since plastic is required to keep them fresh, the plastic used could be repurposed, instead of adding more plastic to the already existing amount in the world.
Challenges
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The way chips and biscuit packing it torn open in any random manner, could pose difficulties when we try to stitch them together to create a new bag, or any other product.
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Customers might be apprehensive about purchasing repurposed bags such as these
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The aesthetics could play a factor in their purchase decision
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Sorting through waste, collecting these plastic pieces, and then properly sterilizing them for use would be a challenge
Iteration 3: Tackling The Problem of Single-Use Plastic Waste In Food Delivery Systems
This involves all the plastic containers that are used as takeaway from restaurants, that have increased tremendously since online food delivery platforms offer takeaway to your doorstep. Every single order involves the use of new plastic containers each time. This iteration selected among the three and the idea was further built on.
Features & Variations
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Intervening in the current online food delivery system, we can provide a service that provides reusable containers to the restaurants for packing.
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In order to maintain the convenience of customers, we can attempt integrate it seamlessly, so that it requires minimal behavioral changes for their existing user base
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There are several possible variations of this intervention, the first of which is to, as a third party service provider, provide reusable containers to restaurants, and subsequently pick up these containers from customers and bring it back to the restaurant for their next order. This would require the container to be cleaned either by the customer before it can be picked up, or by the service provider in a centralized washing and cleanliness center.
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The above mentioned idea would require immense logistical operations, and would be quite cumbersome for any food delivery system to easily adopt. Another way to introduce the idea would be to offer an option to the customer at the point of purchase, i.e., when they place their food order. They could be asked if they own any suitably sized containers for their order. If they did, they could be provided with the option to have their container picked up to parcel the order in, or could have the option to purchase a suitable container from the service provider for all their future orders.
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A way to involve the customer in making a conscious decision, could be to offer all these options, including the option to ignore the suggestion and go ahead with the single-use plastic packing. At this point, the customer could be reminded of the consequences of their decisions, and similarly, upon choosing the reusable container option, they could be thanked for their conscious effort to protect the environment. This would eliminate the event of acting without awareness, and would ensure that whichever option the customer chooses, they are well-aware of the corresponding consequences.
Challenges
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The logistics of intervening within an already complicated system could prove to be a challenge
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Customers might not want to pay extra for environment-friendly packaging
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The customer would have be available for two time periods to meet with two different delivery agents, one for the container pick up, and one for the food order drop off. This could become tedious for them, hindering their work or other commitments.
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In the variation where the third party service provider would undertake the challenge of cleaning the containers for reuse, there could be many difficulties involved in getting the container, having to transport it to the washing facility, and then transporting it to the restaurant for packing the order
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If the container pick up is delayed, the delivery of the order could get delayed which would hamper customer satisfaction
Final Idea
Further Detailing of the Selected Idea
Key aspects of the selected idea:
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Convenience: The proposed service would aim to maintain the convenience of use, and would not create further difficulties in order to adopt the idea, as convenience and ease-of-use is top priority for food delivery platforms.
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Reduce Excess Plastic: This idea would aim to reduce the amount of new plastic waste, and would focus on reusing durable and sturdy containers, instead of utilizing throwaway plastic every time.
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In order to incentivize food delivery platforms to partner with us, our service would have to be seamlessly integrated within their operations, with minimal changes required
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Consciousness: At the point of purchase, the service would introduce the option for the customer to provide their own container, or to go ahead with using the restaurant's throwaway container. This would make the customer decide consciously, and would remind them each time of the positive or negative consequences of either option.
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A Parallel Delivery System: The service would introduce a parallel delivery system, that works alongside the current one. In the minutes between when an order is placed, to when it is delivered, the service would pick up the containers from the customer's home and drop it off at the restaurant, in time for the restaurant to pack the order and the food delivery agent to pick it up and drop it off at the customer's location.
After narrowing down on the idea to intervene in the single-use plastic waste in food delivery platforms, I had to first understand how the delivery platform operates. In order to understand how the proposed service will work in alignment with the current delivery system, and attempt to maximize the efficiency of both systems together, I took the example of Swiggy, and studied its operations. The following understanding is derived from articles written by Swiggy staff about their operations, and my own experience of ordering from the app.
Swiggy's Operating System
To fulfill an online order placed with the app, Swiggy considers four main time periods (names have been paraphrased):
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Assign Time: Time taken for the app to find a delivery agent who can fulfill the order
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Travel To Time: Time taken for the delivery agent to travel to the selected restaurant
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Prep Time: Time taken for the restaurant to prepare the order
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Travel From Time: Time taken for the agent to travel from the restaurant to the customer's home
Using these components, the Delivery Time Equation is created as follows:
Delivery Time Equation = Max (Assign Time, Travel To Time + Prep Time) + Travel From Time
Since Assign Time and Travel To Time happen in parallel with Prep Time, the maximum values of both have been taken for the equation.
Factors Involved In Calculating Delivery Time
In Swiggy's own words, everything in delivery is about the 'Goldilocks Value'. This value refers to the time period which is just long enough to account for the components involved in proper delivery, but not too long that the customer gets discouraged by the time it will take and cancels the order.
Estimating the Prep Time, i.e. the time needed by the restaurant to complete making the order, depends on a number of factors, such as the type of food item ordered, the number of total items, and the workload at the restaurant in that moment. Estimating this time period is important, in order to ensure that the delivery agent arrives at the restaurant only when the food is ready to be picked up, otherwise the waiting period results in time wastage.
There are several factors involved in calculating the Assign Time as well. All the delivery agents need to be tracked at all times, to know which ones are available when a new order is placed. If they are in the process of fulfilling an order, there needs to be an estimated time for when they will complete the order and become available again. Another time period to take into account is the time taken by the delivery agent from the customer's society gate till their doorstep. This wouldn't be an issue for independent homes, but for apartments, especially large societies with several blocks, it could add a significant number of minutes to the overall delivery time. Among all these factors, there is another important aspect to account for- that delivery agents always have the choice to reject an order, meaning they choose not to fulfil it and another delivery person will need to be available for the order.
So, it is clear that the profitability of the app depends on efficiency and customer experience. An aspect to note is that, simply assigning the closes delivery agent to the restaurant, while it does make sense for that particular order, does not prove useful overall and long term for the other orders. Since there are multiple orders placed at any given moment, it makes more sense to take a little extra time and figure out the delivery agent's path for the next few tentative orders as well.
Strategies Used To Optimize Delivery Times
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Just-In-Time Assignment: As soon as an order is placed on the app, two things begin- the restaurant starts preparing the food, and the Assign Time begins to search for a suitable delivery agent for the order. Assigning the agent usually gets done before the order is ready, so the delivery agent is sent to the restaurant just in time to pick up the prepared order and not before, so that they can minimize time wasted waiting for the preparation and parceling. Ideally, the time needed for the agent to travel to the restaurant would equal the time remaining for the food to be prepared.
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Next Order Assignment: A delivery agent can be assigned to another order while they are waiting for a current order, so that as soon as the first order is delivered, they can travel towards the second restaurant. This can be done by estimating the time left on the current order, and the approximate time they would take to reach the restaurant for the next order. This strategy largely depends on the accurate prediction of when the delivery agents will become available.
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Batching: If two orders are placed with restaurants that are close to each other, with customers that are also nearby to each other, one delivery agent can be assigned to fulfill both orders.
Assumed User Personas
Understanding The Users
Note: This project was the outcome of a rapid design task, carried out from start to end in the span of two weeks- with research, ideation and execution taking place one after the other as quick as possible. As a result, my primary research was restricted to friends and family I could immediately speak to, and a sincere attempt was made to set the necessary groundwork for the project within the means provided to us.
I began by speaking to individuals who ordered takeaway fairly frequently, and took note of their ordering procedure, reasons for choosing takeaway, and the difficulties and concerns involved in the process. Using these interviews, 3 assumed user personas were created.
Extrovert
Introvert
Emotional
Practical
Eco-Conscious
Unaware
Junk Food
Healthy Food
Rhea Sagar
Age: 19
Profession: Student
Marital Status: Single
Location: Bangalore
ABOUT
Rhea is a first year college student living in a hostel. College work keeps her busy, and doesn’t leave her any time to cook for herself. She finds the hostel mess food too bland and boring, and so she occasionally orders takeaway with her friends on weekends. She tries to include her hobbies in her busy college routine, such as jogging in the nearby park on alternate mornings, and reading non-fiction books, and keeping herself updated with the global news.
GOALS
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Manage her time between college work and hobbies
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Spend time with her friends
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Make a positive difference in the world
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Find meaningful ways to live sustainably
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Reduce her current plastic consumption
FRUSTRATIONS
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Minimal food options in hostel mess
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Skipping meals due to assignment deadlines
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Bored of the same meals offered in the mess
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Every time she orders takeaway, new plastic waste is generated
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No space in her dorm room to store and reuse these plastic containers
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Lack of adequate non-plastic container options in restaurants
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Seeing rapidly increasing plastic waste landfills in the world
NEEDS
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Variety of food options for meals
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A way to repurpose delivery containers without taking up more space
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A way to reduce plastic waste
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A guilt-free method of ordering takeout
Extrovert
Introvert
Emotional
Practical
Eco-Conscious
Unaware
Junk Food
Healthy Food
Aatish Sharma
Age: 31
Profession: Software Engineer
Marital Status: Single
Location: Mumbai
ABOUT
Aatish is a software engineer who lives with his parents and commutes to work. He has long days at his job and often has to stay late in office. He plays football with his friends in his spare time, and enjoys exploring the food of different cuisines. His passions include reading, working out, and programming.
GOALS
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Manage his time at work and reach home sooner
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Spend more time reading
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Do well at work and receive a promotion
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Spend quality time with his family
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Find environment-friendly solutions to modify his current lifestyle
FRUSTRATIONS
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Having to stay late at work and order takeout for dinner
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Unnecessary usage of plastic containers when he orders food
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Long commute hours
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Reading about the growing environment crisis
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Not enough time to spend time on his hobbies
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No clear alternatives available to reduce plastic usage
NEEDS
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A convenient way to reduce his plastic usage
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A way to reduce waste without reducing consumption•
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A long term solution for his frequent takeout needs
Extrovert
Introvert
Emotional
Practical
Eco-Conscious
Unaware
Junk Food
Healthy Food
Reshma Reddy
Age: 52
Profession: Homemaker
Marital Status: Married, with two children
Location: Ahmedabad
ABOUT
Reshma is a mother of two, and used to work as a chartered accountant until she quit her job a couple years before. She lives in a joint family, and is often occupied in the kitchen for many hours, cooking for her family. Her children like to order takeout occasionally, and she too sometimes prefers it on days when she needs a break to rest from her workload at home. She enjoys tending to her house plants and taking a morning walk around the neighborhood.
GOALS
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Manage her time between housework and pursuing her hobbies
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Spend time with her children when they come back from college
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Allow time for herself to take a break from work
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Lower the amount of throwaway products the household generates
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Support genuine and healthy initiatives
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Provide healthy food for her family
FRUSTRATIONS
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Not enough time to spend on her hobbies
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Cabinet full of plastic containers from previous takeout orders
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Organizing the storage space in her kitchen is a hassle
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Not enough uses for the plastic containers lying in the cabinet
NEEDS
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A way to teach her kids the importance of reducing wastage and repurposing objects wherever possible
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A way to reduce plastic waste
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Find uses for the excessive number of plastic containers accumulated in her home
Detailing The Service
How can the proposed service be seamlessly
integrated with the current system?
To recap, the main time periods involved in Swiggy's delivery system are Assign Time, Travel From Time, Prep Time and Travel To Time. Adding to these, the proposed service will similarly have three main time periods within the system, as shown below.
The service is named Pikkup, and will be referred to as such in the coming pages.
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Assign Time: Time taken for the app to find a delivery agent who can fulfill the order
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Pikkup Assign Time: Time taken to assign an agent available to pick up container(s) from the customer's home
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Travel To Time: Time taken for the delivery agent to travel to the selected restaurant
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Container Pick-Up Time: Time taken for the Pikkup agent to travel to customer's home
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Container Drop-Off Time: Time taken for the Pikkup agent to drop off the container at the restaurant
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Prep Time: Time taken for the restaurant to prepare the order
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Travel From Time: Time taken for the agent to travel from the restaurant to the customer's home
Here, there are three more time periods added to the system that need to be taken into consideration in order to make a timely delivery. How can these added time periods reduce the risk of late deliveries, and maintain the previously promised delivery times as closely as possible?
What Containers Can Be Used?
For the Pikkup service, customers always have the choice of providing their own containers of any kind as long as they are leak-proof and tightly sealed. Examples of these could include Tupperware boxes that are commonly used in homes. Another option is reusing the plastic containers currently provided by some restaurants, which are actually quite sturdy, durable, microwave-safe and can be used multiple times. Instead of getting these containers every order, after the first time, customers can simply reuse these containers for their future orders.
I went around to nearby restaurants and cafes that offered takeaway and studied the containers they provided. Almost all of them were made of durable number 5 polypropylene plastic.
This type of plastic has the following benefits:
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A high melting point, so good for hot-fill foods
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Can be washed repeatedly
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Has been certified as one of the safest plastics for food use
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Has good chemical resistance
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Is dishwasher safe
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Is microwave safe
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Can be used for as long as 6 months
This material does have drawbacks of holding oil stains from the food, and most individuals would not want to heat food in plastic regardless of it displaying 'microwave safe' on the container, and therefore are only a suggestion due to its widespread availability. The reason for this option is that it makes the transition process simpler- most individuals already own a few such containers from previous deliveries, and the ones who don't could store them after the first order with these containers and reuse the same. Most restaurants provide these containers, and for the ones that don't, customers can either provide their own, or purchase containers from our service with a one-time-payment.
The following shows images of plastic containers used by restaurants and cafes, and they all are made of number 5 polypropylene plastic. The last image is from a household, and shows a kitchen cabinet filled with similar containers, waiting to be used.
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System Walkthrough
As soon as the online order is placed with the app,
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A Pikkup agent is assigned to travel to the customer's home
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At the same time, the restaurant starts preparing the order, and the app's delivery agent is assigned
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The Pikkup agent travels to the restaurant with the container while the order is being prepared
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The Pikkup agent's task is completed here, and the rest of the delivery process runs as before
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The delivery agent arrives at the restaurant, and picks up the order parceled in the reusable containers
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And drops it off at the customer's home
Detailed System Map: How does Pikkup Work With The Current System?
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Customer Journey Map
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System Blueprint
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Wireframes
Pikkup Integrated With The Food Delivery App
After finalizing the details of the service, wireframes were made to depict at which point in the ordering process the customer interacts with Pikkup, and the distinct pathways possible through their choices.
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Select Screens Mockup
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Conclusion
Reflection & Future Scope
This project had to be completed within two weeks, which is why several aspects of the designing had to rely on my own thought process with little allowance for outside feedback. Given the time and scope to receive and act on feedback, I think I could work on tackling some of the concerns and challenges I thought of during the designing stage. The biggest challenge I felt with the proposed design is the double touchpoint with the customer. They have to make themselves available twice to meet two separate delivery persons. A way to counter that challenge could be to ask customers to simply leave the containers outside their door in secure packing, so that they need not be disturbed for the pick up, or if they live in a society, they could leave it with their security guard.
Another aspect of this design is that, it does seem to be a highly optimistic solution. Swiggy, as an example, had spent years to optimize their delivery system in order to promise their customers a 30-45 minute delivery time. They worked to ensure that this was a promise they could keep, and now their customers expect this time period to be followed for every order. Bringing in the Pikkup service, while it is a solution to the immense plastic waste, might not be a service desirable enough to adopt within their operations, purely in order to strictly maintain their current delivery times.
The question then arises, how can we get companies that have been contributing to the problem, to become part of the solution? The answer quite likely lies in changing the customer's behavior and thought process. Customer satisfaction is always the end goal, and it is from there that change can begin. If customers demand to reduce the plastic that is wasted on a daily basis, the company that chooses to tackle this problem, will then gain the attention and loyalty of these customers. It is for this reason that in the design, I included the message to the customer at the point of purchase regarding the option they picked- if they chose to provide their own containers to reuse, they are reminded of the positive impact their decision has made on the planet. If they chose the other option, they are again reminded of the consequences of their decision. This point of enabling customers to make a conscious decision, shows them that it is indeed in their hands and they can choose to make a difference and the companies that revolve around their purchases will change their priorities accordingly.