A deliveryman is ready to depart from a restaurant in Seoul for the delivery of lunch boxes to office workers on Sept. 2, 2020. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, March 2 (Korea Bizwire) — Restaurant owners recognize the fact that plastic is both costly and bad for the environment, but the lack of an alternative leaves them with no choice but to use it, a survey showed Tuesday.
The Korea Foodservice Industry Research Institute conducted a survey of 150 restaurant owners, 73.8 percent of whom said they were using “more plastic for packaging and delivery.”
At 89.3 percent, a vast majority agreed to the fact that disposable materials are hurting the environment, while another 71.8 percent said plastic is costly.
Restaurants were found to spend approximately 10 percent of the price of each menu item on packaging and delivery.
Nevertheless, 84.6 percent of all respondents said there were no alternatives.
The research team conducted another survey of 115 consumers, 71.6 percent of whom supported the idea of replacing disposable materials used by restaurants with multi-use containers.
However, 62.9 percent of consumers were willing to give their support only if there were no additional charges.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
