Taco Bell will start reusing hot sauce packets

[mjd]

The heading of this article is misleading. Taco Bell isn't planning to reuse packets. They want to recycle them.


Taco Bell will start reusing hot sauce packets

Taco Bell's plastic sauce packets have a short life. After all, what else are you supposed to do with them after they're squeezed to death?

That's soon changing: The fast food chain is partnering with recycling company TerraCycle to give its packets a "spicier second life that doesn't involve a landfill," Taco Bell said in a press release.

Taco Bell said that more than 8 billion sauce packets are used every year in the United States, a massive number that's potentially environmentally damaging. About 710 million metric tons of plastic will pollute the environment by 2040 if action isn't taken, according to a recent study published in "Science."

Specific details of how the program will work weren't released. However, Taco Bell did reveal that the recycling pilot program will launch later this year and that participation will be simple and involve free shipping. Its ultimate goal is for the discarded sauce packets have an "exciting future as something totally new."

FULL ARTICLE: Taco Bell will start reusing hot sauce packets

 

[medtran49]

I don't know about elsewhere, but the Taco Bell we've gotten lunch at a couple times lately gives us WAY, WAY more sauce than I could ever see anybody using. I mean like 10 or 12 packets of each flavor we ask for. I sometimes use 1, rarely 2 packs of mild and craig uses 2, sometimes 3 of their 2 hottest, so all the rest goes in the trash.

 

[Mountain Cat]

I don't know about elsewhere, but the Taco Bell we've gotten lunch at a couple times lately gives us WAY, WAY more sauce than I could ever see anybody using. I mean like 10 or 12 packets of each flavor we ask for. I sometimes use 1, rarely 2 packs of mild and craig uses 2, sometimes 3 of their 2 hottest, so all the rest goes in the trash.

I haven't eaten at a Taco Hell since the late 70s, but if I enjoy the sauces (no clue any more), I'd take them home to use at home, assuming they're in packets.

 

[medtran49]

I haven't eaten at a Taco Hell since the late 70s, but if I enjoy the sauces (no clue any more), I'd take them home to use at home, assuming they're in packets.

I hadnt either until just recently. Craig wants lunch out from time to time and BK, Wendy's, KFC get old after a while.
We only go thru the drive thru and the Tex-Mex we make at home doesn't need sauce since we always make a salsa or pico to go with.

 

[TastyReuben]

The only thing I ever liked much at Taco Bell was their Taco Salad, which they rebranded a few years ago as Fiesta Salad, and have since dropped from the menu.

They also used to make them with deep-fried flour tortilla bowls, then changed to corn tortillas, which I didn't care for as much.

The standard way they made them included a scoop of refried beans and a scoop of taco meat, and we always wanted two scoops of refried beans, no taco meat, and out of the hundreds I'd ordered over the years, it was always a chore to order them, because they couldn't work out that I wanted the same number of scoops of something, but just the one thing, not both.

I'd either get a taco salad with one scoop of beans, or two scoops of beans and a scoop of meat, or three scoops of beans. No matter how many ways I'd say, "I'd like two scoops of beans and no meat," by the time it got back to the assembly line, they'd mess it up, regardless of the location of the restaurant. Every. Single. Time.

 

[caseydog]

The only thing I ever liked much at Taco Bell was their Taco Salad, which they rebranded a few years ago as Fiesta Salad, and have since dropped from the menu.

They also used to make them with deep-fried flour tortilla bowls, then changed to corn tortillas, which I didn't care for as much.

The standard way they made them included a scoop of refried beans and a scoop of taco meat, and we always wanted two scoops of refried beans, no taco meat, and out of the hundreds I'd ordered over the years, it was always a chore to order them, because they couldn't work out that I wanted the same number of scoops of something, but just the one thing, not both.

I'd either get a taco salad with one scoop of beans, or two scoops of beans and a scoop of meat, or three scoops of beans. No matter how many ways I'd say, "I'd like two scoops of beans and no meat," by the time it got back to the assembly line, they'd mess it up, regardless of the location of the restaurant. Every. Single. Time.

I never eat at Taco Smell. We have Taco Bueno here, and their fast food Tex Mex is WAY better. They also do their sauces different. For eat-in diners, there is a condiment bar with onions, jalapeños, pico de gallo, and salsas (well, before Covid). For the drive thru, they ask you if your want salsa, and if yes, they ask how many. The salsas are in small plastic cups with lids. These CAN be rinsed out and tossed into the recycling bin at home.

CD