CP Five Star Bangladesh, the fried chicken franchise arm of CP Bangladesh Co Ltd, has signed a partnership with local packaging innovator Ecovia to roll out compostable alternatives to plastic across its foodservice operations, the companies said this week.
The deal, formalised through a cooperation agreement signed by senior executives from both firms, marks one of the more concrete moves by a major Bangladeshi food brand to address packaging waste as consumer and regulatory pressure over single-use plastics grows across South Asia.
The rollout will begin with U-cut bags, a staple packaging item used across CP Five Star’s fried chicken outlets, which will be replaced with compostable material developed under the partnership. Executives from both companies described the initial product swap as the first phase of a broader push to embed sustainable packaging across CP Five Star’s supply chain.
Surachai Ratanasuwan, vice president of CP Bangladesh Co Ltd, said packaging carries weight beyond food safety and quality, extending into the company’s environmental footprint given its scale of daily consumer contact. He said the tie-up with Ecovia represents a step toward folding more responsible packaging choices into the company’s operations while giving customers a greener option at the point of sale.
Riasat Zaman, co-founder and chief technology officer of Ecovia, said the company’s compostable technology is designed to meet commercial food-service requirements without trading off on safety, convenience or shelf performance. He framed the collaboration as a chance to prove that environmentally sound packaging can function at the scale a national restaurant chain demands.
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Both companies said the packaging developed under the agreement would be built around food-grade standards, prioritising product protection and operational reliability alongside the sustainability goals, so that the shift to compostable material does not come at the expense of quality or consumer trust in the CP Five Star brand.
The partnership also feeds into a wider circular-economy push, with both firms framing the initiative as a way to encourage more responsible use of raw materials and to spur packaging innovation that reduces long-term environmental impact within Bangladesh’s food-service sector.
CP Five Star and Ecovia said the collaboration is intended to set a benchmark for responsible packaging practices in Bangladesh’s food industry, positioning the deal as a marker in the country’s broader shift toward a more sustainable food-service ecosystem. Both companies indicated they plan to continue identifying additional packaging categories for conversion beyond the initial U-cut bag rollout.
The agreement adds to a string of sustainability-linked moves across Bangladesh’s consumer and packaging sectors this year, as companies face mounting pressure from environmentally conscious consumers, tightening regional plastic regulations, and reputational stakes tied to visible single-use waste. For CP Five Star, one of the country’s more prominent quick-service food brands, the shift to compostable packaging offers a visible way to signal environmental commitment to a fast-growing urban customer base.
Neither company disclosed financial terms of the agreement or a timeline for expanding compostable packaging beyond the initial product category.
Packaging waste has become an increasingly visible flashpoint in Bangladesh’s food and retail sectors, with quick-service outlets producing large volumes of single-use plastic daily through takeaway bags, containers and cutlery. Compostable substitutes are seen as one of the more commercially viable paths for large chains, since they can often be folded into existing supply chains without requiring customers to change behaviour.
For Ecovia, the tie-up offers a chance to prove its compostable technology at commercial scale through one of Bangladesh’s more recognisable quick-service brands, potentially opening doors to further partnerships across the country’s fast-growing food-service industry. The agreement also fits a broader pattern of Bangladeshi food and consumer companies signalling environmental commitments as regulatory scrutiny of plastic waste tightens regionally and as urban consumers, particularly younger diners, increasingly factor sustainability into where they eat.