USA – Yum! Brands, the owner of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell fast food chains has unveiled plans to move its corporate offices to renewable energy and sustainable packaging, and to intensify action on plastic waste.
The fast food chain operator said that it will shift its corporate US offices in Louisville, Plano, Irvine and Chicago to 100% renewable energy and move all plastic packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable by the end of 2020.
In addition, the company continues to advance its work on sustainable packaging with Taco Bell’s commitment to make all its packaging recyclable, compostable or reusable by 2025 globally.
As part of the pledge, the restaurant chain has committed to making available recycling and/or composting bins to all restaurants, where infrastructure permits.
Taco Bell will also be removing a group of synthetic chemicals including Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), Phthalates and Bisphenol A (BPA) from all consumer-facing packaging materials.
In addition, KFC has also pledged to to make all plastic-based, consumer-facing packaging recoverable or reusable by 2025.
“At Yum!, we believe that our iconic, global brands have a responsibility to make a positive impact on the environment in partnership with our franchisees and suppliers,” said David Gibbs, Yum! Brands CEO.
“We’ve made strong progress over the years when it comes to our sustainability agenda and see renewable energy to reduce our carbon emissions as another important step on this journey.”
Yum! further committed to accelerate efforts to remove Styrofoam and Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) globally by 2022 across all KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell locations.
“We appreciate Yum!’s commitment to phase out foam containers globally as a significant corporate leadership action,” said Conrad MacKerron, senior vice president at As You Sow.
“This is a win for oceans and marine life as foam packaging poses particular threats to wildlife.”
These new commitments build on Yum!’s previous actions on climate and environmental issues, as set out in its Recipe for Good, its global citizenship and sustainability strategy.
