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Let’s face it: creating and discarding packaging has a tremendous impact on the environment. That’s why we’ve reduced our packaging and use more recycled materials wherever possible. It’s just one of the many steps we’re taking to shrink our ecological footprint.
Less Material, More Environmental Savings
At A&W we are proud to use a new sleeve on our hot cups to keep that delicious cup of coffee hot until the last drop while protecting your hands from the heat. This coffee sleeve uses 20% less material compared to the original sleeve due to a smaller grip size and less waste in production. With the smaller, more compact size of the sleeve we can also ship 28% fewer pallets per year as a part of our carbon footprint reduction. The sleeves are made of recycled paperboard and water based inks and are completely recyclable and compostable. And on top of all that they are made right here at home in Canada. What more can you ask for!
Sunny-side Up, Wastage Down
Bacon and eggs looking a little classier than usual? Must be our new ceramic plates and stainless steel cutlery!
At A&W, we are always looking for ways to elevate our guests’ experience, and help the environment too. Now when you order one of our plated breakfast options, like omelettes or pancakes, your dine-in breakfast will be served on a real ceramic plate with stainless steel cutlery. By swapping out paper plates and plastic forks and knives for reusable serving ware, we are keeping 121,000 kilograms (266,000 lbs) of waste out of landfills each year. That’s like the annual amount of household trash produced by 100 homes!
Great-tasting food is our business. Excess packaging is not.
At A&W, we believe that the best way to reduce waste is to simply use less. That’s why we are always looking for better packaging alternatives.
We started serving all dine-in orders of our Russet Thick-Cut Fries and signature Onion Rings in reusable mini fry baskets. We also eliminated our paperboard fry cups in favour of a paper bag. These changes will help reduce the amount of paper products hitting the trash by 310,000 kilograms (682,000 lbs) each year.
We switched our foil burger bags and other paperboard items over to a compostable waxed paper bag, further reducing our waste by 170,000 kilograms (375,000 lbs) and removing our demand for over 115,000 kilograms (254,000 lbs) of aluminum foil annually.
Because our new paper bags are less carbon intense, these changes have allowed us to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 5,000 tCO2e. (Tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent)
A&W mugs: better taste, less waste.
Our iconic glass root beer mugs aren’t just the perfect way to serve A&W Root Beer. They’ve also become a great example of truly responsible packaging. Because of our mugs, we’re keeping 148,000 kilograms (325,000 lbs) of waste out of landfills and saving more than 4,300 trees annually. And to think, when we started in 1956, we just thought the glass mugs made the root beer taste better.
We also keep an additional 34,000 kilograms (75,000 lbs) of solid waste out of landfills every year by using ceramic coffee mugs. That’s the equivalent of 1,200 trees. It’s further proof that a little really can go a long way.