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Yesterday Kraft Foods announced that by 2025 all of its packaging will be recyclable. (Note that while they include "reusable" and "compostable" in the announcement, they talk almost exclusively about "recyclable.")

Earlier, Starbucks announced that it was eliminating all single-use straws and switching to a "sippy cup" lid. However, it seems that this new lid, while recyclable, may actually use more plastic.

Poor recycling rates around the world are already well-documented in several answers on this site:

It seems intuitive that if people are already bad at recycling, increasing the share of products which are truly recyclable will actually result in recycling rates decreasing.

Are there any large restaurant chains which are pursuing better alternatives than recycling? Obviously as eco-conscious consumers we have a responsibility to reduce, but manufacturers could work on making their packaging reusable, or at the very least compostable.

I'll also include large food manufacturing brands (Kraft, Nestle, Dannon/Danone, etc). Essentially, any large company producing large volumes of food or beverage in their own, branded packaging. Restaurants sell this in their own stores, manufacturers sell it in someone else's stores.

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    I like the topic of your question, but I suspect that the number of companies and organizations that qualify is very large. Many supermarkets are working on eliminating (plastic) packaging, e.g. Dutch Ekoplaza and UK's Iceland. UK's The Clean Kilo, Bulk Market and German Unverpackt all 3 claim to be a zero waste supermarket already. And this is just a few supermarkets I know off. – THelper♦ Aug 1 '18 at 18:39
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    @THelper I wish there were some this side of the pond... perhaps I could narrow the question to cover restaurant chains? – LShaver Aug 1 '18 at 18:41
  • I think limiting the scope is a good idea. There are no large restaurant chains that come to mind. Perhaps Dutch Laplace restaurants that sell only organic, but I'm not sure how well they are doing when it comes to recycling. – THelper♦ Aug 1 '18 at 18:45
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    A major problem is many do not even recycle what is recyclable. – paparazzo Aug 10 '18 at 13:59
  • From BBC news Jan 2018: Fast food giant McDonald's has said all its packaging worldwide will come from sustainable sources by 2025. The world's biggest restaurant chain wants 100% recycle packaging by then (2025), compared with only 10% now (2018). – clearkimura Feb 23 at 9:19

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