KFC

Background

With more than 600 stores nationwide, KFC Australia owns and operates 160 stores, with the remainder owned by a community of 53 franchisees.

Employing over 25,000 Australians and servicing over 2 million customers every week, KFC is the second largest QSR) in Australia.

Challenge

As one of the largest QSR restaurant brands in Australia, KFC believe it is their responsibility to minimise the environmental impact of their business.

KFC Australia is committed to making investments in research, development, and activities designed to reduce their environmental impact, and is dedicated to improving energy efficiency in their restaurants as well as reducing waste to landfill, pioneering recycling practices in the QSR industry and adopting sustainable packaging.

Closed Loop manage the waste for over 350 KFC restaurants nationally.

Solution

Working in partnership with Closed Loop and the Australian Packaging Covenant, KFC has introduced a Closed Loop Recycling Program (CLRP) - the first ‘Public Place Recycling Program’ of its kind in the QSR Industry.

The CLRP is a holistic approach to waste management and recovery, based on a firm commitment to product stewardship. All packaging has been assessed for recyclability and recovery solutions have been tailored and implemented, such as the Split Bin ensuring maximum recovery rates of recyclables.

KFC partnered with Closed Loop to manage the due diligence of the company’s waste and recycling services and provide financial and environmental benefits.

The Result

KFC is the first to implement a recycling system of this kind in Australia and has set the standard for QSR.

The change KFC is making to the industry has been recognised by the Australian Packaging Covenant who awarded $400,000 to KFC for development and implementation of the Split Bin which can be seen in KFC stores nationally.

This recycling program encourages KFC customers to recycle their plastic bottles, cans and KFC Krusher cups and has resulted in KFC diverting over 2000 tonnes of cardboard and co-mingled from landfill in 2012 alone - an increase in recycling rates of 47% from 2011.

By leading this initiative, KFC has overcome many of the hurdles for the entire industry, setting the gold standard for recycling and waste management and benchmarking recycling practices for the future.

KFC will continue their path to sustainability. The Closed Loop recycling program will continue to roll out across Australia and all food and beverage packaging will continue to be held to the highest environmental standard.

2043 tonnes of cardboard and commingle diverted from landfill in 2012.