Taco Bell Transitions to Sustainable Consumer-Facing Packaging

(Photo: Taco Bell plans to make all consumer-facing packaging worldwide recyclable, compostable, or reusable by 2025. Credit: Taco Bell)

Taco Bell plans to make all of its consumer-facing packaging recyclable, compostable, or reusable worldwide by 2025, the quick-service restaurant said this week.

The brand says its paper bags are currently made from 100% recyclable and renewable raw material sources — and are 100% sourced in the United States. Other previous changes include switching from polystyrene foam to polypropylene containers for sides, moving from a plastic to a paper box for Fiesta Taco Salads, and making the Mini Skillet Bowl packaging reusable and dishwasher safe.

Early last year Taco Bell rolled out recyclable cold cups and lids throughout the United States as part of a goal to make all of its restaurant cups recyclable by 2021. Taco Bell, along with fellow Yum Brands subsidiaries KFC and Pizza Hut, is a supporting partner of the NextGen Consortium’s effort to design alternative cup solutions.

How Taco Bell is going to reach its new five-year global goal for consumer-facing packaging remains to be seen. Missy Schaaphok, Taco Bell’s global nutrition and sustainability manager, told Fast Company that the brand is still figuring out the new packaging.

“We want to ensure that convenience and functionality are very top of mind when it comes to our packaging,” she told the outlet. “The look and feel might change — especially if we move away from black plastic, for example, with our power bowls, to something else that might be fiber-based.”

Schaaphok also said that Taco Bell is working with their suppliers and franchisees to quantify how much waste is getting produced so that the brand can perform benchmarking and track progress annually.

Like many companies in the global food and beverage industry, the brand recognizes how challenging it is to come up with compostable and recyclable packaging given variability about which materials are accepted. “We have 7,000 restaurants across the US,” Schaaphok said in the Fast Company interview. “We want to make sure that we have the most likelihood that it will be composted.”

In addition to planning regional testing on new packaging elements this year, Taco Bell is adding recycling and composting bins to every restaurant where the infrastructure permits it.

Good news: The deadline for the 2020 Environment + Energy Leader Awards has been extended to January 20! Get details about submitting your entry here.