Baemin, South Korea's Delivery Hero-run food delivery app, will launch a plastic reduction campaign from next month, including promoting reusable containers and encouraging users not to request disposable spoons and forks, it said on Monday.

Woowa Brothers, the operator of Baemin, said it planned the campaign to ease burdens on its restaurant partners and reduce the use of disposable items. It also reflected concerns that unstable conditions in the Middle East could drive up unit prices and lead to supply shortages of disposable plastic containers, spoons and forks.

Baemin will run a year-round campaign to spread environmentally friendly activities in line with government policy and expand service areas. It expects a twofold effect by easing the burden from rising delivery supply costs through environmentally friendly activities.

First, it will run a campaign around Earth Day on April 22 to encourage participation in its 'no disposable spoons and forks' option. Customers who place orders during the event period while keeping the option enabled will receive coupons through a draw.

Baemin applied the 'no disposable spoons and forks' option in 2019. The company said the feature helped cut disposable spoons and forks worth about 38.3 billion won last year. On a cumulative basis from April 2019 to December last year, it is estimated to have reduced disposable spoons and forks by about 10.2 billion items.

The company plans to expand areas covered by its reusable container service. The reusable container business began in Seoul in August 2022 and is now available in 20 districts in Seoul, Gyeonggi Province (nine local governments), and parts of Incheon and Jeju. Baemin will work with eco-friendly startup itgreen and link with local government plans to expand the service across Seoul and to areas including Seogwipo in Jeju in the first half of the year.

Baemin also plans to build its first smart packaging infrastructure outside the capital region in the first half of the year. It is part of a hub-type smart city development project led by the Ministry of Land and Cheonan city. Baemin plans to join a consortium to build a reusable container washing centre in Cheonan using artificial intelligence cameras and expand service areas for reusable containers across the Chungcheong region.

Kim Joong-hyun (김중현), head of the sustainability management office at Woowa Brothers, said, "We hope restaurant partners facing burdens from high oil prices and rising delivery supply costs can ease that burden through Baemin's environmentally friendly activities."