In June 2026, Anchor Packaging and Pizza Hut were felicitated with the 2026 Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) Recycling Leadership Award for its new Pizza Hut wing bowl, a recyclable packaging innovation that keeps chicken wings hot in transit – setting a new standard for delivery and carryout quality. The two companies partnered to design a solution that will help the brand keep the quality of every order intact.
Anchor Packaging, now part of Georgia-Pacific's (GP) Foodservice Solutions platform, had a major role in earning the honor of Package Design Innovation. The award was co-presented, underscoring Anchor's significant contributions to the design and development of the Pizza Hut Wing Bowl. Anchor's involvement was essential to the project's success, demonstrating its expertise and impact in delivering innovative packaging solutions. Anchor Packaging was a co-recipient of the award, which the APR said recognized the company’s role in the design and development of the bowl.
The redesigned Pizza Hut Wing Bowl was a major and innovative step for the brand in the foodservice industry. The bowl is designed to provide maximum protection to the packed food to ensure the Pizza Hut customers are able to enjoy their meals hot and fresh, anytime, anywhere. To make the whole procedure more convenient, the brand directly sauced the wings in the container. It helped to shorten the prep time, along with improving operational efficiency. It allows customers to shake the container to recoat the wings with sauce helpful to enhance the experience of wings and enjoy freshly made prep on the go. Such pointers are essential in the food service industry, which was perfectly studied and bagged by the amalgamation of both the brands.
The newly launched wing bowl also created a path for the brand to provide quality to its customers, along with maintaining sustainability in the foodservice industry. Beyond incorporating post-consumer recycled polypropylene (PP) content, it also unlocks a new source of food-grade PP at a previously unavailable scale for recyclers and brands seeking food-grade recycled PP. The innovative design provided by Anchor Packaging allowed the brand to remove carbon black along with excess mineral fillers to improve recyclability, along with allowing recovery of more post-consumer material.
The newly designed wing bowl helps the brand to remove dark pigments that trick optical sorting sensors at the recycling plants. The bowl also does not consist of any excess fillers that strip away unnecessary mineral fillers that previously rendered the containers unrecyclable. The sustainable container also features 10% post-consumer recycled (PCR) polypropylene directly in the container. The efficient design of the bowl also helps the brand to sauce the wings correctly inside the bowl itself to speed up the prep time in the kitchen.
"This recognition by the Association of Plastic Recyclers is an exciting moment for Anchor Packaging, as well as for our partner, Pizza Hut," said Jeff Wolff, president of Anchor Packaging. "Together, we've developed and manufactured an innovative product that excels in food-to-go performance, and its recycled content paves a path to future increases in the use of recycled content by other companies."
"Receiving this award, shoulder-to-shoulder with Anchor, affirms our commitment to advancing packaging sustainability without compromising quality or efficiency – and highlights the strength of our successful partnership," said Kat Smith, packaging engineering manager – Pizza Hut LLC.
The second annual APR Recycling Leadership Awards celebrate leaders who are "Unlocking the Future of Plastics Recycling." The awards recognize packaging designers, manufacturers, researchers, and innovators who are improving recycling for plastic packaging. The winners were announced on February 25.
Founded in 1963, Anchor Packaging is one of the largest thermoformers in North America and is best known for its award-winning product designs and custom packaging development capabilities. As consumers continue moving toward meals to go, Anchor innovates to empower restaurants, grocery stores, convenience stores, and all foodservice operators to serve this growing demand profitably. Anchor products include Crisp Food Technologies containers to keep prepared food hot & crispy for hours in a heated display and 30 minutes on the go, Safe Pinch and Culinary Tamper Safe tamper-secure containers to provide additional safety for food to go, and many more pioneering lines of containers and cling film designed to protect food and offer consumers sustainable choices after use. Anchor Packaging containers are proudly produced in the USA.
Pizza Hut is a multinational restaurant chain founded in 1958 in a multinational restaurant chain founded in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas, by brothers Dan and Frank Carney. Known for pioneering the Pan Pizza, Stuffed Crust, and early online ordering, the company operates nearly 20,000 locations worldwide and is operated in India primarily by franchise partners.
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