7 chicken franchises agree on reducing disposables

Seoul Metropolitan Government, Wednesday, signed an agreement with seven chicken franchises on reducing their use of disposable packaging in food deliveries. / Korea Times photo by Koh Eun-kyung

By Kim Jae-heun

Seoul Metropolitan Government announced Tuesday that it will sign an agreement today with seven chicken franchises on reducing their use of disposable packaging in food deliveries.

The franchise chains are Kyochon Chicken, Kkanbu Chicken, BHC Chicken, Chicken Baengi, BBQ Chicken, Goobne Chicken and NeNe Chicken.

According to the agreement, the companies will stop the use of plastic bags and wooden chopsticks in their food delivery services through educational programs and promotions to their franchisees. They will try to eliminate more disposable products in stages.

This plan is part of the city government's efforts to make Seoul a place without disposable plastic, an initiative announced last September.

“The use of disposable materials in delivery services is increasing, but there are no regulations to control this. Individual efforts by enterprises and citizens to voluntarily reduce the use of plastic are important,” a city official said.

Chicken has become the first food item for the city government to take action on, because such deliveries make up 30 percent of all such services.

The Ministry of Environment said earlier this month it would conduct a six-month survey on plastic waste in food delivery services to come up with plans to reduce disposable products in the industry, following an enormous increase in their use along with the popularity of food delivery.

The ministry said the survey aims to find out what materials and how much of them are used in the industry as well as their effects on the environment.