Restaurant giant Yum Brands to phase out EPS packaging by 2022
Canadian Plastics
Packaging SustainabilityAfter being lobbied by a non-profit organization, Yum Brands – which owns the Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and Kentucky Fried Chicken global restaurant chains – has also committed to making all of its packaging fully compostable or reusable by 2025.
After being lobbied by a non-profit organization, quick service restaurant company Yum Brands will eliminate the use of expanded polystyrene (EPS) packaging – better known as Styrofoam – worldwide by 2022.
The company has also committed to making all of its packaging fully compostable or reusable by 2025.
A shareholder proposal filed by non-profit As You Sow urging the company to phase out EPS foam among other actions to improve packaging sustainability was supported by 33 per cent of shares voted with a share value of US$7 billion in 2019.
Yum Brands owns the Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and Kentucky Fried Chicken global restaurant chains. Collectively across its brands, it has over 49,000 locations, making it the largest quick-service restaurant company in the world.
EPS foam is used mostly for side dish take-out containers in about 40 of Yum’s global markets, including 4,000 U.S. locations and 2,700 non-U.S. locations.
As You Sow previously lobbied for change at McDonald’s. In 2017, similar As You Sow proposals received support from 32 per cent of McDonald’s shareholders, causing McDonald’s to agree to eliminate foam packaging by the end of 2018.
