Sustainable Packaging & Waste Reduction

At Yum!, we believe in taking a more circular approach when it comes to sustainable packaging and waste reduction. We’re committed to sustainable sourcing while focusing on reducing and mindfully reusing or recycling the waste generated at our restaurants. Reducing waste from packaging, as well as operational waste including corrugated board, food and used cooking oil, are both Tier One material issues for our business. Yum! and our brands are working to transition existing packaging as needed and developing new packaging solutions that can be diverted from landfills through recycling or composting.

In 2022, we established a harmonized cross-brand packaging policy that covers four focus areas: eliminating unnecessary packaging, shifting materials, supporting better recovery and recycling systems, and investing in circularity. These goals include:

To help shape and strengthen our packaging and waste reduction strategy, we engage with suppliers, franchisees, governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other partners to address key focus areas. Additionally, we are members of the NextGen Consortium, a multiyear consortium that addresses single-use food packaging waste globally. As a supporting partner, we collaborate with other companies to help advance foodservice packaging solutions that are recoverable across global infrastructures. This partnership plays an important role in our overall sustainable packaging strategy by bringing forward innovative and enabling collaboration across the foodservice industry.

We are also part of How2Recycle, the leading recycling labeling system in the U.S. and Canada. We’re leveraging How2Recycle’s standardized labeling system on our consumer-facing packaging to provide clear instructions on how to recycle more and recycle better.

On the international stage, we were an active participant in the Global Plastics Treaty Dialogues, an activist-to-industry series of online summits focused on a global treaty for plastics convened by the Ocean Plastics Leadership Network (OPLN). Yum! continues to engage with OPLN and its member organizations on the challenges and solutions that surround plastic waste.

At Yum!, we are committed to being a leader in the reduction of food waste. We are a member of the U.S. Food Loss and Waste 2030 Champions, a group of organizations across the food value chain that have committed to reducing food loss and waste in their U.S. operations by 2030. Most of the food waste we divert is donated to nonprofits through the Harvest program. Through this program, Yum! and our franchisees have donated over 215 million pounds of food to more than 5,000 charity partners since 1992.