DOI: 10.5061/dryad.wm37pvmsx
title: Data and code info for: Reducing single-use cutlery with green nudges: Evidence from China’s food delivery industry

description: The rising consumer demand for online food delivery has significantly
 increased the consumption of disposable cutlery, leading to much greater
 plastic pollution worldwide. This study investigates the impact of green
 nudges on single-use cutlery consumption in China. Collaborating with
 Alibaba’s food delivery platform Eleme (similar to Uber Eats and
 DoorDash), we analyzed detailed customer-level data and found that the
 green nudges — changing the default to “No Cutlery” and rewarding
 consumers with “green points” — increased the share of “No Cutlery” orders
 by 648%. The aggregate environmental benefits are significant: if the
 green nudges were applied to all of China, more than 21.75 billion sets of
 single-use cutlery could be saved every year, equivalent to a 20.4% of
 plastic waste reduction in the food delivery industry or a 6.12% reduction
 in China’s total municipal plastic waste.
description: The custom-by-year-month level
 data used for this research are obtained from Eleme, Alibaba’s food ordering and delivery
 platform which is similar to DoorDash and Uber
 Eats. The data included 197,062 randomly selected
 users’ monthly food ordering history, their green points history, their
 tree planting records, and their personal characteristics from
 1<sup>st</sup> Jan 2019 to 31<sup>st</sup> Dec
 2021 in ten major Chinese cities. All of the consumers in the sample
 placed at least one food delivery order during the research
 period. Among the ten
 cities, there were three “treated” cities, including Beijing, Shanghai,
 and Tianjin. Seven cities were the “control” cities, including Qingdao,
 Xi’an, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Wuhan, and Chengdu.
 According to China’s
 provincial statistical yearbook, these cities had a total population of 157.36
 million as of 2020. Eleme provided monthly data on each customer’s
 food ordering history, including the number of orders, number of “No
 Cutlery” orders, and total expenditures. Based on this information, we
 calculated the share of “No Cutlery” orders (SNCO) in percentage terms,
 i.e., divide the number of “No Cutlery” orders by the total number of
 orders times 100. Data on green points included total rewarded green
 points, total rewarded green points from no-cutlery orders, and total
 harvested/accumulated green points. More details about the green points
 were discussed in Supplementary Note 1. Data on tree planting records
 included each customer’s cumulative and the current-month tree plant
 activities.
 Customer personal characteristics included gender, age
 group, and approximate
 value of his/her cellphone, which was computed by Eleme’s
 algorithm. 
description: Access to the Raw Data: The custom-by-year-month level data used for this
 research is stored on a publicly accessible server managed by Eleme. To
 access the server, please follow the following two steps: (1) Write an email to the server manager at ljj01731358@alibaba-inc.com, briefly stating your data request and proposing one or more time slots for server access. You do not have to fill any form in the application process. (2) At the scheduled time, log in to the server via a temporary account provided by the server manager using this link: https://mozi-login.alibaba-inc.com/ssoLogin.htm?preLoginKey=dTwDQeXDFZ1685985098356GiqpKqStOX.