Yum! Brands
Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, Yum! Brands is the world’s largest restaurant company and the corporate parent of five big fast food restaurants: KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Long John Silvers and A&W, with more than 35,000 restaurants in more than 110 countries and territories. With that kind of size and that secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices, don’t tell us that Yum! Brands can’t make a difference with the paper packaging producers whose forestry practices negatively impact Southern forests
KFC
What we used to call Kentucky Fried Chicken is the leader in the fast food chicken sector. There are over 14,000 KFCs, and yearly sales of over $14 billion, when you order your bucket of Extra-Crispy don’t you wish that your bucket was made from recycled paper and not paper sourced at the expense of Southern Forests.
Taco Bell
There are nearly 6,000 Taco Bells with total sales reaching nearly $6 billion. Believe it or not, two billion Americans ate at Taco Bell in 2006. And it takes an awful lot of paper packaging to wrap up all of those items on the value menu. Instead of getting all that paper from the big mills that so negatively impact the Southern swampland region, we say, “Hey Taco Bell, Yo Quiero a responsible paper procurement policy!”
Pizza Hut
Not quite as fast as the others, Pizza Hut with over 7,500 restaurants is certainly more than a slice of the fast food market. With over $5 billion in sales that’s a lot of pizza boxes, napkins and bags. We call on Pizza Hut, the folks that brought us ”America’s Favorite Pizza” to deliver paper packaging with high recycled content.
Long John Silvers
The largest fast food seafood chain with over 1200 restaurants worldwide, Long John Silvers netted $800 million in sales last year. Across the globe, they haul in nearly four million customers each week. As far as we can tell from our interpretation of the pirate code of conduct, all of those boxes and bags should come from recycled fiber and responsibly managed forests. Please join us in saying “Argg matey, stop supporting the destruction of Southern forests.”
A&W All American Food
From a single root beer stand in Lodi, California, there are now almost 650 of these restaurants world wide. They sell lots and lots of burgers, fries, sodas and yummy root beer floats. Those kinds of treats ought to be set up in fine recycled style.
McDonald’s
Headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois, McDonald’s is the behemoth of the fast food sector with nearly 14,000 restaurants and 2006 sales of over $55 billion! McDonald’s sales are more than its next three fast food competitors combined. If you have not seen a big yellow M recently, you need to get out more. McDonalds is a huge consumer of paper packaging and 83% of the packaging used for food and drink is made of some form of paper or other wood-fiber material. Recycled paper now makes up 31.5% of the total material used in McDonald’s packaging. That makes them the largest buyer of recycled fiber in the fast food sector. Yes, Mayor McCheese, they clearly have made some progress in becoming more responsible in their paper packaging choices. That’s a start and who doesn’t love the occasional visit, but with billions and billions served the big kahuna needs to do better when it comes to staying out of the important forests of the Southern swampland region.
Jack in the Box
Headquartered in sunny San Diego, California, Jack in the Box is serving up lots of paper packaging sourced from the large packaging mills across the Southern swampland region. With over $2 billion in annual revenue and nearly 2,100 outlets, Jack is in the position to do something good for Southern forests by reducing excessive packaging and bringing in more recycled fiber. Now that would really give Jack a big head!
Arby’s
Sandwiches, sandwiches, sandwiches, at over 3,500 locations. Last year Arby’s had revenues of $3.2 billion. With its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, Arby’s should be a natural leader in Southern forest protection and in making their packaging more responsible. Arby’s, please turn away from using paper from business as usual logging practices like large scale clearcutting and the conversion of natural forests to industrial pine plantations that have been so destructive to the forests of the South and increase your use of post-consumer recycled paper packaging.
Wendy’s
Yes we have a beef with fast food burger giant Wendy’s. Located in Dublin, Ohio with sales approaching $8 billion dollars per year and nearly 6000 restaurants, that’s an awful lot of paper packaging. And Wendy’s with their drive-thru’ open late is pushing a lot of paper packaging made at the expense of the beautiful and bio-diverse Southern swampland region right out the window. Their burgers and baked potatoes are good, but their paper packaging really needs to be spiced up. And ask yourself, “Where’s the beef?” Wrapped up in layer upon layer of packaging from endangered forests of course!
Bojangles’ Famous Chicken ‘n Biscuits
Located in Charlotte, North Carolina, Bojangles is another Southern company that should be doing more to ensure that their paper packaging does not come from industrial clearcuts and monoculture pine plantations created by ditching and draining what was once some of the most biologically rich bottomland forests. As a Southeastern favorite based on Southern flavors, the packaging wrapping their chicken and biscuits flying out of their 400 restaurants should come from sustainably managed forests and recycled paper.
Quiznos
This purveyor of toasted sandwich treats has 4,600 restaurants and unfortunately market research has indicated that the packaging around their crunchy treats comes from the big paper mills that drive the destructive business as usual forestry practices of large-scale clearcutting and the conversion of natural forests into monoculture industrial pine plantations. Come on Quizno’s just because your headquarters are located in the Rocky Mountain State of Colorado it doesn’t mean you can ignore the impact of your packaging choices on the forests of the Southern swampland region.