FAST FOOD FOR THE NATION

We all know the effect fast food has on our bodies. But after you’ve finished and thrown away the packet what effect could it have on the environment? Recycling is on the increase but there is more than meets the eye when it comes to fast food and the environment.

A report published in 2000 by Stockholm University and the Swiss Federal In-stitute of Technology re-vealed that the average cheese burger takes be-tween 7-20mJ of energy to produce. This inclues everything from growing the wheat and making it in to the burger bun to feeding the cattle.

When converted to CO2 it results in an emission of between 1-3.5kg.

This does not even take in to account how much meth-ane is produced by the cow itselff. In its lifetime a beef cow can produce 220 kilos of methane through ma-nure and flatulence.

Both fast foods and ready meals are guilty of contrib-uting to the global carbon footprint.Distribting all this food in lorries adds to pol-lution, CO2 emissions and congestion which all play a part in worldwide climate change.

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FAST FOOD FOR THE NATION

Packaging is part of an important branding pro-cess which touches most products including food products. Food companies, especially those who deal in fast food, have been under considerabl;e pres-sure recently to reduce the amount of packaging they use.

Many companies have tried to rise to the chal-lenge...

Increased recyling outlets means you can dispose of pizza boxes, Styrofoam cups and juice cans with-out harming the environ-ment as much.

McDonalds has started us-ing recycled materials for some of their food contain-ers.

Conventional polystyrene burger boxes have been replaced with recyclable cardboard.

Many other companies are now doing the same.

Chains like KFC and Burg-er King have also tried to reduce the level of waste produced by their outlets following a 2003 campaign by “Keep Britain Tidy.”

Local councils have been encouraging fast food out-lets to help and promote schemes which will encour-age keeping streets tidy and are getting tougher on the production of fast food generated litter.

Laura Young

www.earthmagazine.com 35