Fast food giants make new litter prevention pledge

Some of Britain’s biggest brands will sign up to an assault on waste tomorrow in a bid to restore their reputations when it comes to the litter that blights streets across the country.

Fast food restaurants McDonald’s, KFC, and Domino’s Pizza, along with Coca Cola and Wrigley, have signed up to a litter prevention commitment. The pledge is part of a new bid by Keep Britain Tidy to reduce levels of rubbish which cost a billion pounds a year to deal with. It is being announced on Thursday at a meeting of the Tidy Britain All Party Parliamentary Group, in the House of Commons.

Helen Bingham, the communications manager at Keep Britain Tidy, told The Independent: “Government has stepped away from the issue of litter and local authorities are facing increasingly squeezed budgets so getting businesses whose brands end up in the gutter involved in encouraging and enabling their customers to do the right thing is vitally important if we are to solve the £1 billion problem of litter in this country.”

By signing up to the commitment, companies will include rubbish in their corporate social responsibility and environmental policies, and seek to minimise litter through product design, labelling and influencing the behaviour of their customers.

A spokesperson for KFC said: “We recognise the impact of litter on local communities and acknowledge that we have a clear responsibility to minimise litter in and around our restaurants.” They added: “We’re delighted to sign the new commitment which is focused on litter prevention and to help with this we’ll engage in more local partnerships with Councils and other businesses to not just manage litter, but to also raise awareness around responsible behaviours.”