Pilots Focus on National Recycling Solutions

Global Green's Coalition for Resource Recovery announced a foodservice packaging pilot project in New York City to develop a cost-effective, national recycling solution for the Quick Service Restaurant industry.  For the pilot, CoRR seeks 150 QSR stores with five brands represented.  The packaging volume generated will be sufficient for mill, collection and sorting tests necessary to create solutions based on integrity within the entire supply chain.

4.1 mil tons of food packaging goes landfill

Every year, 4.1 million tons of paper, prepared food packaging is landfilled in the United States. The collection and recycling of this material would decrease greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 15 million metric tons of CO2, the equivalent of removing 3 million passenger vehicles from the road.  CoRR's pilot goal is to create effective options to return the packaging to the manufacturing cycle, rather the current landfill destination.


Pret A Manger, a British QSR expanding in the U.S., committed 25 locations to Corr's pilot.  The Restaurant Participant Guide gives the pilot parameters and benefits along with contact information for interested parties. CoRR produced an excellent video with an overview of the pilot and accomplishments in prior Pret A Mange projects.


Easy to use recycling bins with clear signage for consumer use are essential to a successful program.  CleanRiver, a Canadian recycling bin manufacturer, agreed to donate 150 recycling containers for the project.

CleanRiver indoor
recycling center

“We’re delighted to be a part of this project and to learn through the pilot process how we can optimize messaging and multi-stream container design by assisting a diversity of quick service retail environments,” said Tom Lembo, CleanRiver’s™ Recycling Program Manager.  “Each participating brand will be offered up to 30 containers as a means of facilitating Global Green reaching a diversity of retail environments for participation in the pilot”.

CleanRiver is committed to working with QSR and food court operations on effective systems that incorporate recycling as an industry standard practice.  An Elemental Impact sponsor, CleanRiver serves on the Sustainable Food Court Initiative Team where Tom is the Recycling Container Committee Chair.  The SFCI is an Ei Task Force in partnership with the National Restaurant Association dedicated to bringing zero waste practices to food courts.
See the ZWZ Blog post, SFCI in ACTION Mode, for a powerful update on recent accomplishments and awards.


With CoRR and SFCI working in tandem on pilots with similar goals there is certain to be effective solutions found to a challenging scenario.  Stay tuned to the ZWZ Blog as we track tales from the journey.