MANILA — Fastfood giant Jollibee has partnered with the Department of Trade and Industry for its ‘BEE Earth’s Best Friend’ campaign, its program which aims to encourage consumers to make green choices.

A memorandum of understanding was signed between Jollibee and DTI at the department’s head office in Makati. DTI will help promote the option to cut the use of plastics in fastfood restaurants.

The campaign entices take out and drive-thru customers to choose not to get plastic utensils. To encourage this, customers will be given a coupon and on the third and fifth visit without getting plastic utensils, customers will get a free item.

Jollibee Assistant Vice President Eloise Anne Siccion said the company hopes to change the habit of Filipinos even with this small campaign. Jollibee staff will be asking take out and drive-thru customers if they want to have utensils or not.

“We’re doing it one step at a time because admittingly Filipinos are still adamant to change habits. Change is never easy, but hopefully some events we are doing similar to our partnership with DTI today would be a game changer,” Siccion said.

The campaign is available in branches in Southern Luzon and Bicol so far, but there are plans to expand this nationwide.

“This initiative is not just about reducing the plastic waste or promoting responsible consumption, it is about creating a conscious shift in the way that we consumers, the businesses, and communities make choices that impact our environment and of course future generations,” said DTI Usec. Blesila Lantayona.

Prior to this, a smaller campaign in a just a few branches was done where Jollibee officials said resulted in positive response.

“We were seeing changes in the behavior and that’s why we are quite excited to launch it in a bigger scale to cover more stores,” said Lusito Tan, Area Customer Activation Senior Manager of Jollibee.

Siccion added, ”After we launched the campaign sa drive-thru nag vovolunteer na sila mismo na ‘no need for the utensils, we will just use what we have at home’.”

DTI is also open to collaborating with other restaurants or companies to further beef up sustainable practices.