America's fast food culture is hurting more than our waste lines. With it's grab-and-go, overly packaged food stuffed with unnecessary condiments, fast food outlets are our country's primary source of urban litter and a significant hurdle to local communities' waste diversion goals.

Litter characterization studies across the country have recognized fast food restaurants as the primary identifiable source of urban litter. The most abundant type of non-cigarette litter is foamed polystyrene ("Styrofoam"). This foamed plastic, a staple of fast food restaurant, becomes a permanent fixture in our environment when littered. Easily travelling through gutters and storm drains, it eventually reaches the ocean. Indeed, plastics from urban runoff is the largest source of marine debris, which in some parts of the ocean is so concentrated that there is six times more plastic than plankton!

Furthermore, fast food restaurants are a drag on local communities' waste diversion rates. Currently less than 35% of fast food store's waste is diverted from landfills, the vast majority of which is cardboard. Very little food packaging and almost no fast food plastic is currently diverted from landfills. This low diversion rate is surprising considering the vast majority of restaurant waste is not plastic--its main litter culprit--but rather paper, a perfectly recyclable resource. The problem of fast food is not surmountable. Like many areas of waste generation, a few simple, economical changes in the way the fast food industry handles its waste could change what currently is a major source of unrecyclable, permanent litter to a model for other businesses.

What CAW is Doing:

• CAW is sponsoring AB 904, which would require all takeout food restaurants in the state to use only recyclable or compostable materials.
• CAW is working with local communities to help increase the number of municipalities that have adopted takeout food recyclability requirements.

Learn More about the Issue of Takeout Food Waste:

• Targeting Polystyrene and Takeout Food Packaging
• CAW Plastics Campaign
• Characterization of Fast Food Waste