Packaging symbolizes the disposable society we have become. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the fast food industry with drive-through windows, french fries, burgers and hundreds of on the go food choices. Last year sales for the 400 largest U.S.-based fast food chains were $277.2 billion (6.8% increase from the year before). Our fast food lifestyle is literally burying us in an avalanche of excessive packaging and waste. Every year millions of pounds of food packaging waste litter our roadways, clog our landfills and spoil our quality of life. But more than litter, today’s fast food packaging is destroying our Sothern Forests.
- The average American eats fast food more that 150 times per year.
- The disposal of all that packaging in landfills ultimately results in the release of millions of pounds of greenhouse gases as the paper rots.
- Too much of this packagingis not recycled or otherwise disposed of properly.
- With its grab-and-go, overly packaged food stuffed with unnecessary
- condiments, fast food outlets are our country’s primary source of urban litter.
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