Yum! Brands Extends Partnership With NextGen Consortium To Accelerate Circular Foodservice Packaging Solutions

Yum! Brands has extended its existing partnership with the NextGen Consortium, a multi-year consortium, convened by Closed Loop Partners, that addresses single-use food packaging waste. As a supporting partner, Yum! and its KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and The Habit Burger Grill brands will continue to collaborate with other companies to help advance sustainable foodservice packaging solutions that are recoverable across infrastructures. This partnership plays an important role in Yum!’s overall sustainable packaging strategy through innovation and alliances across the foodservice industry.

“We’re thrilled to continue working with the NextGen Consortium in this next phase and believe that finding innovative solutions to address the world’s packaging and waste problems takes cross-company and cross-sector collaboration,” said Jon Hixson, Yum! global chief sustainability officer & vice president of Government Affairs. “As a global restaurant company, we’re committed to taking a more circular approach in this space, and our brands are working to develop packaging options that accelerate our journey.”

Since 2018, the NextGen Consortium has helped to advance sustainable packaging and recycling infrastructure with a focus on redesigning the single-use fiber cup. The Consortium will now expand its efforts, including and beyond the fiber cup, to further research and test reusable packaging solutions, the circularity of materials like polypropylene, and the recyclability and compostability of fiber-based packaging solutions.

Yum! has been on a path to make its packaging more sustainable, and this work has accelerated in recent years. In 2021, Yum! joined How2Recycle, the leading recycling labeling system in the U.S. and Canada. Also, in 2021, Taco Bell launched a collaboration to increase circularity with TerraCycle, a company that specializes in hard-to-recycle materials, to tackle recycling of its iconic hot sauce packets.

Yum!’s current packaging and waste goals include:

• Taco Bell will make all its consumer-facing packaging recyclable, compostable or reusable, and eliminate any PFAS, phthalates and BPA from its packaging, by 2025.
• KFC will make all plastic-based, consumer-facing packaging recoverable or reusable globally by 2025.
• KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell locations globally will remove Styrofoam and expanded polystyrene from packaging by 2022.
• Yum! will purchase 100% of its paper-based packaging with fiber from responsibly managed forests and recycled sources by the end of 2022.
• Taco Bell will add recycling and/or composting bins to restaurants globally, where infrastructure permits, by 2025.
• Address Food Waste:
  • Yum! will divert 50% of back-of-house operational waste, measured by weight, generated in U.S. restaurants by 2025.
  • Yum! will reduce food loss waste 50% by 2030 in accordance with U.S. Food Loss and Waste 2030 Champions.

Learn more about Yum!’s packaging work at yum.com/citizenship.

About Yum! Brands, Inc.
Yum! Brands, Inc., based in Louisville, Kentucky, has over 50,000 restaurants in more than 150 countries and territories, operating the Company’s brands – KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell – global leaders of the chicken, pizza and Mexican-style food categories. The Company’s family of brands also includes The Habit Burger Grill, a fast-casual restaurant concept specializing in made-to-order chargrilled burgers, sandwiches and more. Yum! Brands was included on the 2021 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index. In 2020, Yum! Brands was named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index North America and was ranked among the top 100 Best Corporate Citizens by 3BL Media.

About NextGen Consortium
The NextGen Consortium is a multi-year consortium that addresses single-use food packaging waste globally by advancing the design, commercialization, and recovery of food packaging alternatives. The NextGen Consortium is managed by Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy. Starbucks and McDonald’s are the founding partners of the Consortium, with The Coca-Cola Company joining as a sector lead partner. JDE Peet’s, Wendy’s and Yum! Brands are supporting partners. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is the environmental advisory partner. Learn more at www.nextgenconsortium.com.