Taco Bell will reuse hot sauce packs

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That is rapidly changing: The fast food chain is partnering with recycling company TerraCycle to give its packages a “spicier second life without a landfill,” Taco Bell said in a press release.

Specific details about how the program works have not been released. However, Taco Bell has revealed that the recycling pilot program will start later this year and that entry will be easy and include free shipping. The ultimate goal is for the discarded sauce packs to have an “exciting future as something completely new”.

Taco Bell said it is the first fast food brand to use TerraCycle, a New Jersey-based company that helps large businesses go greener. It worked Procter & Gamble PG Unilever the and Nestlé to help produce reusable packaging instead of single-use packaging that ends up in landfills.

In this case, it collects non-recyclable materials, melts them down and transforms them into a hard plastic that can be recycled after use.

“In the food industry today, there is no widely available solution for recycling the flexible film packaging that is so commonly used for condiments,” said Liz Matthews, Taco Bell’s global chief food innovation officer, in the publication.

Taco Bell hopes that by 2024, packaging used by its customers will be fully “recyclable, compostable or reusable” at all of its 7,000 locations worldwide. It uses this pilot program to shape its future recycling efforts.

Last year, Taco Bell claimed it ditched its popular Mexican pizza because of its packaging, which accounted for using more than 7 million pounds of cardboard per year.

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