SOUTH AFRICA – KFC South Africa, a subsidiary of the fast food giant, has announced that it will eliminate all plastic straws in over 900 restaurants across South Africa by July 1.

The move forms part of a new global sustainability commitment from the business that all plastic-based packaging items will be recoverable or reusable by 2025, helping to eliminate 60 million plastic straws a year.

The commitment supports KFC’s long-term plan to implement a more sustainable packaging strategy in its restaurants – by developing a roadmap for using sustainable packaging options –building on the progress of plastic straws.

As part of its ongoing efforts to adopt more sustainable practices, the brand has already removed disposable plastic beverage cups from its KFC head office.

“As a global brand that operates in 900 restaurants in South Africa, KFC can have a real impact on how the industry approaches single-use packaging.

“With environmental sustainability as a core aspect of how we do business, this commitment represents a public acknowledgement of the start of our journey as KFC to address these issues to have a positive effect on our environment.

“In South Africa we have secured a local supplier for our paper straws, stimulating local business, and economies,” says Thabisa Mkhwanazi, KFC Africa’s public affairs director.

As one of the leading quick service resturant brands in the industry, KFC remains committed to embarking on initiatives that uphold environmental standards in the communities where they operate.

“Additionally, while we are aware that KFC joins an already existing global war on plastic, but as a fast food giant, we are doubly aware of the sheer scale of our business to be able to profoundly impact the narrative on plastic,” Thabisa added.

Following this growing trend in the hospitality industry, the fast food giant in the latest in a string of restaurants to ban the use of plastic straws in favour of paper straws.

KFC has pledged to remove all single-use plastic items from its range of consumer-facing packaging by 2025 across all its 135 markets.

“As a global brand that operates more than 22,000 restaurants in over 135 countries, KFC is in a position to have a real impact on how the industry approaches waste and packaging management overall,” Lowrings said.

“With environmental sustainability as a core aspect of how we do business, this commitment represents a public acknowledgement of the obligation we have to address these serious issues,” KFC’s chief executive officer Tony Lowrings confirmed.