Business

Why Is KFC Turning Old Staff Uniforms Into Carpet?

The chicken giant in Australia is diverting 60,000 old uniforms from landfill by turning it into 25,000 m2 of carpet underlay. But it's not for KFC's restaurants - It's to be sold on commercially.

KFC recently ordered 25,000 new uniforms for its staff, but it wanted to make sure that the old ones, equating to 7,000 kg of fabric, were disposed of in a sustainable manner. KFC Australia's chief supply chain officer, Michael Clark, said the challenge needed a bit of innovative thinking. "Diverting old uniforms from landfill presented a significant operational and logistical challenge. This forced KFC to really think outside the box," he said. "It's incredibly important that we look for ways to re-purpose unneeded products from our stores and reduce waste and energy consumption across our entire restaurant network."

So by the end of the year, KFC will be shipping the new uniforms to fibre technology firm, Pacific NonWovens. And to tackle to task of diverting so many users its teaming up with existing suppliers like Cut Fresh Salads, who are utilising their services beyond delivering their salads. This isn't the first waste prevention initative that the fast food chain has embarked on. In the UK, along with McDonald's Wrigley and Coca-Cola Enterprises, KFC teamed up with Keep Brian Tidy to tackle the £1 billion problem of littering.