You’ve had a long day, your fridge is empty, and you finally give in — ordering your favourite dal makhani and butter naan, or maybe a spicy biryani with raita on the side. The food arrives, piping hot, and tastes just as comforting as you’d hoped.

But once the meal is over, what’s left behind is not so comforting — a pile of plastic containers, wrappers, and disposable cutlery. Most of it ends up in your dustbin. And from there, into landfills, where it might sit for hundreds of years.

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. For many of us, food delivery is part of our lifestyle. But so is the silent waste it generates.

What Zomato is doing — and why it matters

That very problem is what Zomato set out to address with its Plastic-Free Future Programme — a quiet but powerful shift in the way food is packaged and delivered across India.

Through this initiative, Zomato is helping over 200 restaurant brands in over 400 cities transition to eco-friendly, plastic-free packaging. On the app, these restaurants are marked with a little ‘ℹ️’ icon — a small but meaningful nudge that tells you, this meal didn’t cost the earth.