KFC is doing their bit for the environment by eliminating plastic straws in all 900 restaurants across the country by July 1.

Following the growing zero waste trend, the fast food giant has decided to ban the use of plastic straws in a string of their restaurants.

The food giant announced it will have only paper straws available by 1 July, with an estimated impact of 60 million straws per year.

However, it could take years for the chain to finally phase out plastic.

“It takes 200 years for a single plastic straw to decompose,” the company said.

“As one of South Africa’s most loved brands, we know that we need to contribute to the environment in which we do business and use our scale to drive real impact.”

KFC, globally, has committed to removing all non-recoverable or reusable plastic-based packaging from its stores by 2025.

Having started with straws, it is now identifying sustainable packaging alternatives for a number of other plastic item, KFC SA said in a statement.

KFC joins other local fast-food outlets and restaurants that have phased out or started reducing the usage of plastic in favour of paper straws.

Nando’s urges customers to only use straws when they absolutely have to, and they are then offered paper straws.