When you go to Taco Bell, what do you get to drink? Perhaps a Mountain Dew Baja Blast?
Or maybe one of the new freezes? Or do you like some tea with your tacos?
Whether you get tea or not, each Taco Bell location makes plenty for the day. And according
to an employee's TikTok video, they waste a lot, too. In the video, the employee disposes
of two large dispensers of Lipton sweet and unsweetened tea at an undisclosed Taco Bell
location, likely at the end of the day.
The containers, filled to the brim, get poured down the kitchen sink, which seems to be a
considerable amount of waste. Restaurant workers from across the internet chimed in with comments
affirming this was pretty typical. One person said that they were used to dumping out nearly
6 of the containers as an employee of their own McDonald's, while another viewer chimed
in with the proposal,
"[J]ust take it with you [and] give it to homeless people or a food shelter."
Others couldn't believe the containers didn't use liners, and wondered why this particular
restaurant didn't use bagged tea.
The user that posted the tea video has used their TikTok channel to show off more behind-the-scenes
footage from their Taco Bell restaurant. Other videos showed how the employee cleaned the
floors by flooding the area with water and mopping the grime into drains on the floor.
This footage caused a stir, with many commenting on the amount of liquid that was completely
wasted. The water usage particularly strikes a chord, given Taco Bell's latest sweeping
environmental policies.
Taco Bell has publicly recognized how much waste it has the potential to produce. Now,
the company claims to teach its team members how much food to create per order to reduce
waste.
Despite the extra training, though, the TikTok video seems to document some major tea waste.
While the video didn't explicitly spell out just how much tea went down the drain, each
container appeared to hold approximately five gallons of the beverage, according to Webrestaurant
Store. That means it could be up to a 10-gallon loss of tea.
Trying to find ways to save the tea can prove challenging in the best of times. Restaurant
Business reports that when some restaurants have leftover coffee, the shops occasionally
find ways to repurpose the leftovers into ice cubes, different coffee drinks, and as
an ingredient for baked goods. While this method of recycling works for black coffee,
you can't really do the same for tea.
According to Let's Drink Tea, due to the sugar content, brewed iced tea only has a shelf
life of eight hours, even when stored in a refrigerator. After that amount of time, the
tea begins to lose flavor, a trait that Taco Bell probably doesn't want to pass on to consumers.
The inclusion of sugar also promotes bacterial growth, making it very unappealing and potentially
dangerous to keep around.
"Tanner, don't drink that!"
The video demonstrating all of the lost tea doesn't fit well with Taco Bell's latest environmental
goals. According to Waste 360, the brand has plans to go as green as possible by 2025,
making all of its customer-facing products compostable, recyclable, or reusable in the
next few years. In addition to new wrapping material, Taco Bell has also announced plans
to feature recycling and composting bins in its restaurants whenever possible. CNN reports
that the chain even made waves by recently announcing that it plans to reuse hot sauce
packets in an effort to reduce its ecological footprint. These sweeping changes seem to
mark a whole new era for Taco Bell.
With this latest TikTok video, the inner workings of Taco Bell have allegedly been laid bare
for all to see. The massive amount of tea dumped may reflect just one day, but you could
assume this massive pour-out happens on a regular basis if individual restaurants don't
sell their whole batch. That, coupled with the amount of water used for cleaning, points
to practices that don't exactly line up with Taco Bell's greener vision.
With some time still to go before its 2025 deadline, perhaps Taco Bell can still examine
its water use policies and reduce the amount of tea brewed in future batches to minimize
its environmental impact across its restaurants.
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