Daraz sets an exemplary standard as an environmentally conscious brand!

With a rapid growth in online delivery services, use of plastic ware and products have grown exponentially. While online delivery services like FoodMandu, Bhojdeals, Daraz and Pathao have made the life of customers easy and convenient, their carbon footprint has grown proportionally as well. Towards this, Daraz has been making effective policy and packaging changes to reduce its growth’s impact on the environment.

Daraz, a leading e-commerce platform, is also leading by example when it comes to minimizing its impact on the environment without any governmental regulations. While brands often flout governmental regulations like the alcoholic brands advertising their products making a mockery of Nepal’s rule of law, Daraz has set an exemplary standard in perhaps being a pioneer in acting in an environmentally conscious brand!

Daraz has invested heavily in the 3R principle( Reduce, Reuse and Recycle with the following goals in mind:

1. Reduce packaging waste and proper use
2. Reuse the waste paper and canvas sacks
3. Recycle the waste generated 

As a part of its commitment to the 3R principle, Daraz has shifted its operational focus on being paperless. From Picklists/ Picklists to delivery run sheets, operations are now handled through either RF handheld scanners or Android phones. Daraz has also shifted to cloud based file sharing to avoid large paper printing.

In order to reduce plastic consumption, Daraz is looking to replace their packaging material with recycled plastic and paper, which are biodegradable. They have also replaced their poly sacks with canvas sacks in their packaging. Canvas sacks are more durable, and more importantly, biodegradable. Additionally, Daraz is also on course to run a pilot project with paper packaging in their warehouses. 

We want to reduce packaging waste as much as possible and for this, we already have optimal packaging guidelines in place for our warehouse. We are working on ways to collect packaging flyers from our customers to recycle them. Though there are many technical challenges for this, we strive to work on scaling up our collection efforts through a recycling-based reward system.

Pranayana KC, Head of Marketing, Daraz

Moreover, Daraz has also partnered with DOKO recyclers in order to help them segregate recyclable materials before being sent out to the landfill. Doko claims to promote and enable smart sustainability by providing clients with waste management options ranging from doorstep recycling pick-up to repurposing discarded items with environmental awareness along the way.

While all these proactive steps of Daraz are definitely deserving of appreciation, since they have done this sans governmental regulations, much still needs to be done. As of now, Daraz’s packaging is still reliant on non-reusable plastics that customers often let end up in the landfills. We hope Daraz will live up to its promise of recollecting the packages from its customers and recycle/reuse them. Also, while Daraz claims that it is piloting ‘Electronic Cargo Van’, the ground reality is completely different.

However, we want to give credit where credit is due! We give full five stars to Daraz’s environmental commitment to reduce, reuse and recycle! Other brands like Pathao, Foodmandu and BhojDeals are completely reliant on plastic and have not had any visible efforts in order to reduce their negative environmental footprint. That said, since a lot of their initiatives today are either at the pilot stage or general aspirations, BrandGuff will continue to monitor whether Daraz lives up to its commitments.