As businesses and restaurants have opened back up (but with COVID precautions still), I have gone out to lunch or dinner with my family and friends in my local downtown area. During the pandemic, restaurants have undergone many changes: being more flexible with outdoor seating, spacing out tables, and processing more to-go orders. However, I saw a really interesting change: menus viewed through QR codes, printed on the tables! 

QR codes have been around for a long time: black and white squares arranged in specific patterns. By scanning them with a smartphone or other device, you can link yourself quickly and directly to a specific website. Locations like restaurants, schools, and healthcare facilities in my area have been gradually integrating QR codes to link to their online menus, websites, and online forms. Especially during the pandemic, when surfaces constantly need to be cleaned to prevent the spread of the virus. QR codes can be scanned, without touching any paper menu or object.

Along with being relatively interesting and useful, I had the thought that QR codes must have some effects on the environment! With about 15 million restaurants, pubs, or cafes all around the world, all of these need menus. Physical menus need to be printed, and reprinted as well to replace them or if they are disposable. The integration or complete integration of QR codes can eliminate that cost to the business, as well as the environment.

An example is Philadelphia Scientific, a business who started utilizing QR codes. Instead of printing information on the product, they put QR codes on the side of their packaging. This saved 400 reams of paper, equal to 200,000 pieces of paper in the year.

This spread of QR codes has been spreading in my area of the western United States (being accelerated as well because of the pandemic), but I wonder, have you seen this in your area in the world? I’m genuinely curious, let me know in the comments.

Thanks for reading my first article of this term!

References used:

https://squareup.com/us/en/townsquare/making-the-move-from-physical-to-digital-menus

https://medium.com/@monikaadarsh/disposable-menus-digital-menus-qr-code-menus-comparing-solutions-for-restaurants-post-covid-db227ac00d0b

https://www.phlsci.com/news/articles/going-green-with-qr-codes/