Two students who designed an upgraded hot food delivery box, with additional folds to keep the contents hotter and safer, are to enter discussions with BioPak to put their design into production.
William Shaw, aged 23, and Josephine Cooper, aged 21, from Sheffield Hallam University last week won a Deliveroo-run competition to “create innovative, sustainable food packaging that simultaneously prevents spillages, maintains food at the right temperature and is cost-effective for restaurants”.
Their design – which adapts an existing rectangular food box with “creative updates such as a brand-new sealing system” – won the £1,000 cash prize in the BioPak-backed competition, and could now be made available for restaurant partners to buy on Deliveroo’s packaging webstore.
The duo – with others from the Sheffield Hallam University packaging professional BSc course – had been given four months to develop their prototype, which was judged the best by a panel including packaging experts and local restaurants.
“We’re always looking for new and innovative solutions to big challenges, and that’s why we’re so incredibly excited to partner with these talented students in Sheffield Hallam to support the next generation of packaging design that really puts sustainability at its heart,” said Jen Bagshaw, head of packaging at Deliveroo. “By celebrating creativity and giving them the initial backing to get off the ground, we’re looking forward to working with the winners to encourage a solution that’s sustainable and doesn’t come at a significant cost for businesses in the delivery sector.”
Using a PLA-lined carton board as the lid and an existing packaging product as the basis, judges determined the winning entry could be produced without significant extra cost and would be competitive with other products from the perspective of restaurants, making it feasible to go into production discussions immediately.
Other entries included a student who used her previous experience working in a Chinese restaurant to design an interconnected set of boxes where different parts of an order could sit in separate sections all safely connected together, and a labelling system to give better information and instructions to both customers and riders on how to handle the order.
“As Deliveroo’s packaging partner for almost 10 years, we understand the challenges restaurants face in finding responsible and functional packaging,” said Sam Walker, technical director at BioPak. “Seeing Sheffield Hallam’s students identify the same issues but tackle them from a fresh perspective has been incredibly inspiring. BioPak has been a pioneer in innovative, sustainable packaging for many years, and based on what we have seen throughout this competition, we’re confident that these students will go on to make their own mark as successful innovators.”
The competition follows various moves made by Deliveroo to support restaurants to transition to sustainable packaging. This includes a £2.5m packaging fund that subsidises the cost of all environmentally-friendly packaging items from the Deliveroo packaging store, “elevating its sustainability offer to restaurant partners to support them in switching to greener choices” the aggregator app said.
“The Deliveroo and BioPak packaging competition has been challenging and rewarding in equal measure, and we’re thrilled our design was chosen as the winning entry,” Shaw and Cooper said. “We are looking forward to entering production discussions with BioPak, and hope our design can make a positive impact on sustainability across the food industry.”
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