A few years ago, if you say that KFC will be leading in bringing awareness to the harms of plastic for food, you’d probably be laughed at.
And, this is important, because fast-food companies like KFC are notorious for disposable food containers and for placing profits over anything else.
Well well well, look who’s laughing now?
Though, if anything, maybe that does put them in a position to actually start a change.
KFC Already Stopped Plastic Cups Since The Start Of Nov 2019
…wait a min, didn’t this happen before?
Relax, Goody Feed isn’t bringing you old news. In 2018, they stopped providing plastic straws and cup caps.
People got angry! Why KFC so hypocrite, say do for the environment, cut plastic straw but still give plastic cup! Got point meh?
Patrons got passive-aggressive. I paid for this shit, why no plastic straw? Walao I take from Kopitiam and food court lah!
It took quite a while, and they didn’t really answer to the passive-aggressive patrons, but in 2019, KFC replaced the actual plastic cups.
With paper cups, of course. This translates to a savings of 8.3g of plastic from a regular-sized cup and 10g from a medium-sized cup.
Which, according to KFC, means 4.25 metric tonnes of plastic waste per month.
Hold on a second, what if I really need the plastic?
Relax, common sense still exists in this world. Straws are still available for children, elderly and people with special needs. If you’re dabaoing, there will still be plastic lids for your drink orders.
And talking about dabaoing, KFC also encourages you to bring your own cutlery and takeaway bags.
They’re Also Trialing Reusable Containers In Kallang And Toa Payoh
Something bigly like climate change takes baby steps for change to happen. And if disposable containers were to be minimised in the future, it starts with a trial like this.
Paper packaging for 13 dine-in menu items will be replaced with reusable trays from Dec 2019 in the Kallang and Toa Payoh outlets.
For those who clear their own trays, remember not to anyhowly throw these reusable ones away.
But, Uh… Is This Really Gonna Do Anything?
The hate on plastic often has people forgetting it’s actually not very clear if paper is actually better than plastic. For one, the production of plastic itself is actually 70% more polluting.
So surely, if people hate plastic so much, paper must be easier to recycle right? Wrong. Recycling paper is highly inefficient, and actually takes 91% more energy to recycle compared to plastic.
That said, it’s not very clear if paper is worse. Plastic is also less biodegradable, more harmful to wildlife, and is a pain in the ass when implementing recycling.
So… just a PR move?
Maaaaaybe. But, in the first place, expecting companies whose sole purpose is profits to do something about the environment doesn’t quite make sense.
If anything, fighting climate change requires an organisation that oversees the entire country and works with other countries to change the system. Only then can it have an impact.
Like, I don’t know man, maybe don’t measure our success using GDP or something. GDP is pretty outdated yo.
Baby steps like plastic straws and cups are pretty cool for awareness, but we shouldn’t assume they would be meaningful steps in a relay race.
