Eatgreen (CEO Junhyung Lee) will hold the ‘7 Agri & Food Tech Start-up Rising Expo 26’ held at COEX Hall A in Seoul for three days from Wednesday, July 28th to Friday, July 3th. He announced that he would participate in ‘.
itgreen is actively providing reusable container services in a total of five fields with a vision to achieve the ‘3R’ of resource use (Reduce), Reuse (Reuse), and Recycle (Recycle). First, there is a ▲delivery app service that allows you to receive delivery food in a reusable container instead of a disposable delivery container. ▲Even within the baseball stadium, food is served in reusable containers and disposable containers are being reduced. In addition, in conjunction with lunch delivery partners, we also provide B5B lunch regular delivery, which provides lunch boxes in reusable containers to major customers, and ▲ office cup service, which provides reusable cups within the office. Lastly, there is a ▲festival service where you receive food in reusable containers from booths, food trucks, etc., eat them, and then return the containers to a dedicated return box.
Eatgreen, which was established in November 2020, was selected as a multi-use container business by Seoul City. It has expanded steadily within two years of its establishment and is operating a reusable container service in 11 districts in Seoul and 2 cities in Gyeonggi-do along with major delivery apps. Within one year of service, sales grew 10 times and achieved a surplus, and in April of this year, the company successfully completed pre-A investment attraction and was selected for TIPS, the technology startup support program of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.
This exhibition mainly introduces the reusable container delivery service ‘Return It’. The Return It service standardizes the existing 2,000 types of disposable containers into 11 types, solving all processes at once, including container production, rental, cleaning, and collection.
In the delivery app, delivery food can be received in a reusable container instead of a disposable container, and if the consumer puts it out the door through a QR return request without washing the dishes or disposing of leftovers after the meal, the container is collected within 24 hours. Collected containers are returned to the Eatgreen Cleaning Hub and undergo a total of 7 cleaning processes, including prewashing, soaking, sterilization, and inspection. When receiving delivery in a conventional disposable container, the consumer had to handle everything from disposing of leftover food to separating waste, but with ‘multi-use container delivery’, all you have to do is close the lid of the leftover food and apply for return, and ‘Return It’ takes care of this directly, reducing the burden.
An Eatgreen official said, “During the COVID-19 pandemic, as deliveries increased rapidly, disposable waste also increased. Looking at the piles of disposable containers, I began to wonder, ‘Is there any delivery service that does not produce waste in the first place?’ This led to the development of ‘Return It,’ a delivery service for reusable containers.” He added, “Through our service, everyone can naturally use eco-friendly and valuable products in their daily lives.” “We are trying to provide reusable container services in various fields so that people can practice practical actions,” he said.
The background to participating in this exhibition was also revealed. An official said, “We decided to participate because we thought the purpose of ‘Return It’, which provides a reusable container service to solve the problem of excessive use of disposable containers in the food delivery industry, was consistent with the purpose of the agricultural food tech startup entrepreneurship fair,” he said. “We decided to participate.” “We plan to introduce the reusable container delivery service through a service exhibition in the booth, and reusable cups will be provided in the cafeteria on the day of the expo so that visitors can directly experience the recyclable container service,” he explained.
He continued, “Because there are so many food and beverage sectors that require reusable containers, Eatgreen’s growth potential is endless. “We plan to expand the region in the future so that the service can be used in as many places as possible, and we will also actively expand the service to various fields such as movie theaters.”
Meanwhile, at AFRO 2023, the largest Agtech & Foodtech event in Korea, domestic startups with global growth potential in Agtech, Foodtech, and Green Bio will exhibit products and services to solve various problems in the agriculture and food industries, Various programs such as conferences discussing the present and future of Agtech and Foodtech and investment briefings (IR competitions) are held. This exhibition is hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and supervised by the Korea Agricultural Technology Promotion Agency, NH Nonghyup, COEX, and the Korea Food Tech Council.