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KFC Canada to pilot bamboo fast-food buckets

Global chicken restaurant brand KFC Canada says it is exploring eco-friendly alternatives for its iconic fast-food buckets, starting with a bamboo-fibre poutine bucket in early 2020.

“The KFC bucket is one of the most iconic symbols around the world and has always been synonymous with our world-famous chicken,” says Armando Carrillo, Innovation Manager, KFC Canada. “We’re proud of our sustainability journey and we want our customers to feel that KFC is dedicated to, not only providing Finger Lickin’ Good chicken in every bucket, but also delivering it in a way that our guests can feel good about.”

Although bamboo is a relatively new innovation to packaging, it has been commonly used throughout history for many applications, from food sources to building materials, the restaurant giant explains, noting that bamboo is one of the fastest growing plants in the world, reaching its adult size in three to five years as compared to 20 to 30 years for trees. As well, bamboo is 100-percent biodegradable.

The bamboo packaging initiative builds on the commitments the company has already achieved in the sustainable packaging realm. Earlier this year, KFC Canada committed to sourcing 100 percent of fibre-based packaging from certified or recycled sources by 2020. Additionally, as part of a global sustainability commitment by the brand, KFC Canada continues to pursue making all plastic-based, consumer-facing packaging recoverable or reusable by 2025, and announced in July that all plastic straws and bags would be removed from restaurants before the end of 2019. This action alone is expected to eliminate more than 50 million plastic straws and 10 million plastic bags from the communities in which KFC Canada operates.

KFC consumers will have the opportunity to test out the new bamboo-fibre poutine bucket in select restaurants across Canada in the new year.