Editorial: Talking Trash

Fast-food garbage is not as plentiful as customers think, but that doesn’t mean we should do nothing about it.

By Mary Boltz Chapman, Editor-in-Chief -- Chain Leader, 7/1/2005

Here's a quiz: What percentage of America's landfills is comprised of fast-food packaging like pizza boxes, clamshells and straws? Researchers from the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology at the University of Arizona asked that question at universities and business and government meetings. Estimates averaged from 20 percent to 30 percent. In reality, the amount is less than one-half of 1 percent by weight and about one-third of 1 percent by volume.

Granted, these data are old; the most recent I could find are from a July 1992 Smithsonian article, “Five Major Myths About Garbage and Why They’re Wrong,” written by leaders of the “Garbage Project,” the ongoing UA research that began in 1973. And takeout consumption has grown significantly since then. But at the same time, fast-food packaging today is thinner, lighter and more biodegradable.

Why Do We Care?
So what? Does it matter that educational, business and political leaders think takeout garbage is exponentially more abundant than it is? Of course it does. It feeds the perception that big, impersonal corporations don’t care about the environment, their communities or Americans’ vast consumption habits.

We know better. Packaging—both coming in the back door and going out the front—has advanced. French fry bags remind customers, “please don’t litter.” Trash cans at the end of drive-thru lanes let motorists easily deposit their straw wrappers.

Chains like McDonald’s and Starbucks publish corporate responsibility statements that include environmental strides and goals. For example, McDonald’s is phasing out the use of batteries that contain mercury in Happy Meal toys. Starbucks is testing 10 percent post-consumer fiber in its cups, which should roll out this year.

Customers don’t know about most of the good things restaurant companies do to protect the environment. All they see is fast-food garbage on the street. I’ve been unable to find anything like a litter census, beyond one or two small-scale local cleanups that found fast-food wrappers and bags amounted to up to a third of the trash collected. But you don’t need data to find our industry’s sophisticated branding among the roadside trash.

Put Litter in its Place
I don’t believe that companies have a responsibility to pick up after their customers beyond the boundaries of their own lots. That’s the job of each individual.

I do believe companies have a social responsibility to support the communities in which they operate. And there is mounting evidence that those companies that work for the greater good reap the benefits of more loyal customers and employees and better returns. Litter control can be one way we help our community. Take part in cleanup days as part of local-store community-building efforts. Sponsor the highway that leads to each regional office. Support Keep America Beautiful, its local affiliates or other environmental groups. (Choose carefully—all are not as beneficent as they present themselves.) Send general managers into elementary schools to teach children to “put litter in its place.”

Education is key. You don’t want to appear as though you’re to blame for your littering customers. But don’t let that fear keep you from helping your communities stay clean and getting the word out about your efforts.