Hotel Nalan, which has two branches in Coimbatore and serves primarily millet-based food, started urging customers from August 15, 2018 to bring containers for takeaways. It has stopped using plastic covers for parcel orders. Though the number of customers who ask for parcel food has reduced because of this and only now customers have started bringing their own containers, the hotel plans to continue with this practice. “With the plastic ban coming into effect this is an option,” says M. Karuppusamy, who runs the hotel.
But, not all restaurants in the city are ready to switch over completely. It does not work, say hotel industry sources. If there are 100 customers who bring vessels at the same time to a hotel there will be confusion while packing. Also, the size of the containers is sometimes too small. Those who are going home from work might not carry enough food boxes with them, say the sources.
Thus, almost all the 200 registered brands of hotels with the Coimbatore District Hoteliers’ Association have gone in for different options for parcel foods.
Vivek Srinivasan and Jegan S. Damodarasamy, Executive Directors of Sree Annapoorna Sree Gowrishankar Hotels, say the packing cost of a south India meal works out to nearly ₹30 if only reusable plastic containers are used instead of plastic pouches.
A south Indian meal will have at least eight varieties of food. “We used plastic pouches. We can go in for bio-pouches but might not be able to pack hot food in it. So the option is to go in for plastic containers that can be reused or eco-friendly pouches.”
Office-bearers of the Coimbatore District Hoteliers Association told presspersons here on Tuesday that the cost of parcel food will go up by 7 % to 10 % on an average. The hotels will bear part of the parcel cost as they have gone in for alternatives to plastics. Apart from the containers for packing, the plastic carry bags and non-woven bags will be replaced with kraft paper bags or cloth bags. The hotels will decide individually whether the cost for this will be passed on to the customer or not. Some hotels have given the option to the customers to bring their own bags to carry the packed food.
Hotel industry sources here say all these will have an impact on business. It will take about 10 or 15 days to know what are the alternative products that can be sustained. The vendors should be able to supply the alternatives in such large quantities continuously. Further, there is no clarity on use of products such as paper cups and compostable bags. There are about 3,000 food suppliers listed on some of the food delivery apps. A number of them are just kitchens catering to takeaway orders. Then there are the roadside eateries. Many of them are not even aware of the plastic ban and continued to pack food in plastic covers on Tuesday.
