Food delivery company, Foodpanda, has been receiving flak over the last day or so after a video surfaced online that shows a slew of delivery bags strewn across the forest floor in Gombak. The original post on Facebook, posted by Andy Hickson, is captioned: “The jungle is not a dumping ground you ignorant ar*%holes.”
The pile of rubbish you see in the video above appears to be made up of plastic containers, general waste, and a pretty big amount of Foodpanda delivery boxes. However, it’s worth noting that there is also a large amount of general waste that doesn’t appear to be from the food delivery company.
Foodpanda has now issued a response, as reported by The Star, which says that they will conduct an investigation into the whole affair, and will remove the littered delivery bags as well.
“In light of the recent discovery of the alleged illegal dumping of Foodpanda delivery bags in the jungle, we will be launching an investigation into this immediately.”
The company also stated that they are making efforts to contact Hickson for his help in locating the pile of rubbish. In their defence, the company explained that unusable delivery bags are usually properly disposed with recycling facilities.
As sustainability is an important initiative for Foodpanda, with the launch of opt-out where customers can choose not to receive single-use plastic cutlery with their order, we assure that this is a matter of the utmost importance for us to understand.”
However, it isn’t clear as to which party the fault lies with. Foodpanda has said that they will investigate the matter, but stopped short of a full admission of guilt. Which makes sense, given that there was also general waste in addition to the Foodpanda delivery bags.
Until further investigations are carried out by the local authorities, it seems that we won’t know for sure. In the meantime, this episode shows that social media—when used in the right manner—can be a powerful tool for promoting change, and responsibility.
