Time for Frito-Lay to Help Clean Up the Mess They Make
In the winter of 2003-2004, while living aboard my boat in Marina del Rey, California, I visited Venice Beach
several times each week, strolling along the tide-line and picking up
discarded plastic items, as well as seashells, driftwood and whatever
else the sea chose to give up. My guess is that I picked up several
tons of plastic waste during that season alone. I considered it my
contribution to a "Healthy Earth".
Not surprisingly, the #1 trash item, by count, if not by sheer volume 
was Frito-Lay, Inc.
chip wrappers. Often, they outnumber all other trash items combined.
On a good day, I could clean half a mile of tide line until it was free
of trash. In a tough day, after a storm sent urban runoff down Ballona Creek and into Santa Monica Bay, I would be lucky to clear one hundred yards of beach.
was Frito-Lay, Inc.
chip wrappers. Often, they outnumber all other trash items combined.
On a good day, I could clean half a mile of tide line until it was free
of trash. In a tough day, after a storm sent urban runoff down Ballona Creek and into Santa Monica Bay, I would be lucky to clear one hundred yards of beach.Since I love Fritos, Doritos and “Cheetos-breath”
as much as the next person, I decided to see what Frito-Lay might be
doing about the reduction of trash and solid waste in our environment.
Since they prominently display the word “Being Green” on their corporate website, I clicked there to see what the company had to say.
I
was impressed to see how much the corporation was doing to decrease
their use of energy, water and to reduce unnecessary packaging. The
problem is that chips need packaging and the sheer number of chip bags
produced and discarded outweighs all of the company’s other efforts
combined. On an even more disappointing note, Frito-Lay puts
plastic packaging recycling directly back on the consumer. Quoting from
their website, they say, “Cans, paper and glass bottles tend to be
more popular recyclable items than plastic [bags]. For more information
about the feasibility of starting plastic recycling, we suggest
contacting your local city sanitation department”.
The
net result of this responsibility shifting is that very few of
Frito-Lay’s chip wrappers are recycled. When you combine their
lightness with the American propensity to litter the landscape, millions
of these wrappers are wafting away on the wind each day.If there are few, if any plastic-wrap recycling
programs in America, what can be done to reduce this “number one, with a
bullet” solid waste disposal issue? The solution is simple. Each chip
bag should come with a two-cent deposit, paid at the time of purchase.
One cent could go to whoever 
returns
a chip bag to an authorized recycling center and one cent could go to
the recycler for shipping and handling. Frito-Lay, for their part,
could provide sanitary, sealable containers to their route drivers and
use their existing deliver fleet to pick up their own trash and recycle
it.
returns
a chip bag to an authorized recycling center and one cent could go to
the recycler for shipping and handling. Frito-Lay, for their part,
could provide sanitary, sealable containers to their route drivers and
use their existing deliver fleet to pick up their own trash and recycle
it.American business has a long, sad history of
polluting the land and water, changing its ways only when forced to do
so. Wouldn’t it be nice if a corporation as large and ubiquitous in our
lives as Frito-Lay would step up and take responsibility for its role
in the trashing of America?
By James McGillis at 04:14 PM | Environment | Comments (0) | Link
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