Taco Bell has partnered with waste management company TerraCycle to give customers the opportunity to recycle those little single-serving sauce packets you get with your fast-food meal, Plastics Today reported.
Per the report, the two companies started the pilot program in 2021, encouraging people to mail in their used sauce packets in exchange for reward points that could then be converted into cash and donated to a select group of nonprofits. Even better, the following year, the program began accepting sauce packets from any brand — not just Taco Bell.
Now, the two companies have expanded the program even further, allowing customers to send in sauce-dipping cups, souffle cups and lids, and coffee creamer pods.
"In 2022, we tested the idea with consumers to responsibly recycle any brand of condiment sauce packets," Missy Schaaphok, director of global nutrition and sustainability at Taco Bell, said in a news release from PR Newswire. "We worked with TerraCycle and a franchisee in New Jersey to test out the concept, and it was such a success. As a result, we decided to take the idea nationwide later that year and share the love beyond our iconic sauce packets, giving a more sustainable option to everyone."
"At TerraCycle, our objective has always been to provide innovative sustainability solutions for hard-to-recycle waste streams through partnerships like the one we share with Taco Bell," TerraCycle CEO and founder Tom Szaky said. He indicated that, through the program, "consumers have the ability to easily recycle any and all sauce packets through the Taco Bell Sauce Packet Free Recycling Program with no restrictions."
Single-use plastics are a huge problem for our planet, taking tens to hundreds of years to break down. The production of the material also generates heat-trapping gases like methane. While there are many plastic-free alternatives for everyday products, the fast-food industry as a whole has been grappling with how to reduce its single-use waste.
At the time the pilot program launched, Taco Bell estimated that 8.2 billion of its sauce packets were ending up in landfills every year, per Plastics Today.
Since its recycling program depends on customers voluntarily going out of their way to send used sauce packets and other tiny containers through the mail, it is clear Taco Bell could do more to truly address its contribution to the single-use plastics crisis. Luckily, the brand seems willing to take on that challenge.
Taco Bell has also announced that it intends to make all of its consumer packaging recyclable, compostable, or reusable, according to Plastics Today. It will also eliminate PFAS and bisphenol A (BPA) from packaging materials as well as add recycling and/or composting bins to its restaurants by 2025.
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