GrabFood, Thailand’s No.1 food delivery platform¹, has partnered with Trash Lucky, a Thai environmental startup, to promote waste management and recycling practices within the restaurant and food merchant industry through the “Green Merchant: Sort, Save, Recycle” initiative. The 6-month project aims to encourage food merchants and restaurant owners to sort waste generated in their outlets and channel it into a proper recycling system. Participating merchants can convert recyclable waste into cash while tracking both waste volumes and carbon reduction data via Trash Lucky’s LINE official account.

Well-known restaurants including Emily’s Chicken Noodles, Hommi, Greyhound Café, and Neua Camp Fire, are joining the pilot project, which aims to divert at least 10 tonnes of waste into the recycling system. The initiative also supports the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration’s “No-Mix Waste” programme to help reduce landfill waste and create a greener Bangkok.

Chantsuda Thananitayaudom, Country Head of Grab Thailand, said, “For over 13 years, Grab has remained committed to driving purpose-led business growth and creating positive impact for the society and the environment under our GrabForGood mission through three key pillars — Performance, People, and Planet. Beyond continuously enhancing our platform to better serve consumers and drive strong business performance (Performance), as well as empowering people across our ecosystem especially drivers and merchant-partners (People) we also place strong emphasis on environmental sustainability (Planet) through various initiatives.” 

These include the GrabEV programme, which promotes access to electric vehicles for drivers and riders, with over 30,000 EV fleets currently operating on the platform in Thailand; the Green Programme, which helps avoid or reduce carbon emission through verified carbon credits via Grab services, and funds the planting of over 210,000 trees last year; as well as the ‘Cutlery Opt Out’ feature, which has helped prevent the use of more than 5 billion sets of single-use plastic cutlery across the region since 2021.”

“This year, we are introducing a new initiative, “Green Merchant: Sort, Save, Recycle,” in collaboration with Trash Lucky, a Thai platform dedicated to promoting waste sorting behavior and recycling. This initiative encourages merchant-partners on our platform to properly separate waste generated within their outlets and channel it into an organized recycling process. Merchants can also immediately convert recyclable waste into cash while monitoring the amount of waste collected and carbon emissions reduced through recycling via the Trash Lucky’s LINE official account @Trashlucky. The project will run as a six-month pilot, during which we will collect insights and data to further enhance and expand the initiative in the future.”

Nattapak Atichartakarn, CEO & Co-Founder, Trash Lucky, commented, “Thailand is currently facing a severe waste crisis, generating approximately 2.24 million tonnes of waste annually. However, only 25% can be recycled or repurposed, while the remaining 75% ends up in landfills, incineration systems, or leaks into the environment. Recognizing the urgency of this issue, Trash Lucky has developed our platform to encourage Thais to sort waste and ensure it enters the proper recycling process through a reward-based mechanism.”

Trash Lucky members can convert recyclable waste into reward points to redeem prizes or participate in monthly lucky draws. Today, Trash Lucky has more than 30,000 members and has successfully diverted over 750 tonnes of waste into the recycling system.

“Our collaboration with GrabFood marks an expansion from engaging individual consumers to working directly with restaurant operators. Together, we aim to encourage restaurants to recognize the importance of systematic waste management and adopt better waste sorting practices through education and practical guidance. This includes reducing waste generation at the source, minimizing unnecessary plastic use, selecting recyclable packaging in line with the 3R principles (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle), as well as properly sorting and managing waste.”

“Trash Lucky will also oversee the collection and management of recyclable waste generated from participating merchants. We aim to divert more than 10 tonnes of waste into the recycling system. Insights from this pilot project will also be used to assess performance and further develop a more sustainable long-term model.”

Participating GrabFood merchant-partners in the “Green Merchant: Sort, Save, Recycle” pilot project includes Emily’s Chicken Noodles, Easy Health, Good Roots, Greyhound Café, Hommi, Kumtsu, Lek Yai Traditional Tom Yum Noodles, Lucky Panda, Neua Camp Fire, and Plantiful. In addition to focusing on delivering quality products and services to customers, these restaurants increasingly recognize the importance of environmental sustainability and are adjusting their operations to minimize environmental impact. Examples include adopting more environmentally friendly packaging and improving ingredient planning to reduce food waste.

Poramet Boonlertsaksakul, Managing Director, Emily’s Group, shared, “At Emily’s, we have always placed importance on selecting packaging that not only reflects our brand identity and aesthetic, but also provides convenience for customers while remaining environmentally friendly. This is why we choose biodegradable paper packaging. However, operating a food business inevitably generates many types of waste that require proper management.”

“Being part of this pilot project has provided us with valuable knowledge and practical guidance from experts, ranging from waste sorting and recycling management to packaging selection and internal staff engagement to drive participation. These learnings will help us operate more efficiently while becoming even more environmentally responsible.”

1  GrabFood was recognized as the most often used food delivery brand in Thailand for 2025, according to Kantar