Kentucky Fried Chicken Ravages the Environment for Paper Packaging-

As of late, there has been much scrutiny directed at fast food companies due to their support behind mistreatment of animals; however the industry hardly makes headlines for another critical issue – its devastation on natural resources and the environment. Fast food packaging destroys our forests and, not to mention, the millions of pounds of accumulated rubbish trash our roadways and oceans, congest our landfills, and hurt our quality of life. In fact, 300 pounds of packaging waste is produced each year for each person in the United States alone and a staggering 32 percent of the total domestic waste consists of containers and packaging. Recent studies prove that fast food packaging makes up about 20 percent of all litter – with drink containers, chip bags, candy wrappers and other snacks comprising another 20 percent. Ultimately, to the detriment of the environment, the heaps of packaging waste dumped in landfills begin to release millions of pounds of greenhouse gases as the paper rots. In order to meet the fast food industry’s colossal demand for paper packaging, 43 million acres of forests have been converted into sterile, row-crop pine plantations – an insufficient replacement for the lush diversity of native forests. According to Care2, an online advocacy group, certain fast food chains are working to ensure that their paper packaging is not derived from endangered forests; however, the fast food conglomerate Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) continues to produce its packaging from the few remaining woodlands in the southern U.S. Sign the petition and let the President of KFC know that Southern forests are too precious to be wasted for packaging!