Food delivery has spiked in the wake of the pandemic, thus increasing the use of disposable plastic associated with takeaway packaging. Needless to say, this has only amplified the global plastic crisis. It’s also highlighted the urgent need to redesign the food delivery sector, which is worth around $53.4 billion per year globally.

On a mission to achieve exactly that, design studio PriestmanGoode developed Zero, a concept for an incentive-based food-delivery system that could encourage consumers to use and return bioplastic containers to takeaway restaurants.

To help consumers skip single-use plastic for fast food boxes and bags, Zero would encourage them to change their throwaway habits by offering an attractive alternative that could be reused almost indefinitely.

Zero’s boxes would have a bento-style stacking system, avoiding the need for individual lids by placing each container on top of the other, with the base of one acting as the lid for another.

In order to incentivize consumers to return the containers, the design would work on a customer-reward basis. Buyers would pay a small fee for the packaging when ordering the food, which would be reimbursed on their next delivery when the containers are returned to the delivery service provider.

The boxes and the bags they come in are also made from sustainable materials to lessen the product’s burden on the environment. The container is partly made from cocoa bean shells, which is a by-product of industrial chocolate production, while parts of the delivery bag are made using mycelium and pineapple leaves.