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Fast Food Waste Threatens our Marine Environment, Drags Down Diversion Rates
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. Furthermore, fast food restaurants are a drag on local communities' waste diversion rates. Currently, less than 35% of fast food stores' 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 insurmountable. 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:
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