Keep Britain Tidy today has named McDonald's as the most littered fast food brand in the country, meaning the people who litter are more likely to be throwing their wrappers on the streets than any other fast food brand. It's no surprise, given McDonalds is the top fast food brand.
It's super-sized shame for the residents of ten city centers and suburbs/out-of-town locations across England. But McDonalds isn't alone. They made up more than a quarter of all fast food litter (29%), mostly burger wrappers, condiment packets and plastic straws.
In second place, as a group, were local chippie or kebab shops: Keep Britain Tidy found a huge amount of unbranded chip wrappings and packaging in all locations (21%). This included polystyrene chip trays and plastic forks.
In third place, Greggs, was found to have a high gutter share. The company's pasty and pie wrappers made up 18% of all fast food litter.
There was a big drop to fourth place KFC (8%) and fifth place Subway (5%).
Keep Britain Tidy surveyors spent two days observing fast food litter in Newcastle, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Leicester, Birmingham, Bristol, Southampton and London.
National Gutter Share - the most littered fast food brands in England:
1/ McDonald's - 29%
2/ Unbranded fish and chips/kebab - 21%
3/ Greggs -18%
4/ KFC - 8%
5/ Subway - 5% and other branded coffee 5% (joint place)
The findings come at the same time as some university research claims the damaging impact litter can have on a brand; basically that fast food businesses could be suffering financially due to their association with litter. Though that would seem to make sense only if the wrappers were found with the foodstill in them. Not the case at all.
Keep Britain Tidy would like for the fast food industry take more responsibility for what happens to fast food and packaging taken away from premises.
Phil Barton, Keep Britain Tidy chief executive, said, "We condemn litterers for dropping this fast food litter in the first place but also believe the results have pertinent messages for the fast food industry.
"We know from working with McDonald's in the past that the company takes a responsible attitude to its communities by running local anti-litter campaigns. McDonald's has anti-litter logos on packaging, provides litter bins and runs 'litter patrols'. However, McDonald's litter remains all too prevalent on our streets and we'd like the company to do more to tackle the problem.
"We want all fast food chains to reduce unnecessary packaging and make it easier for customers to do the right thing."
Dr Stuart Roper at Manchester Business School - The University of Manchester and Professor Cathy Parker at Manchester Metropolitan University say litter can damaging impact on a brand.
Parker said, "There is clear evidence that seeing litter with a company's brand on can negatively affect the public's perception of that brand.
"There is, therefore, a good commercial reason why fast food operators should take more of an interest in what happens to their packaging once it leaves their premises."
To see how each city fared and analysis of the findings, the full report can be downloaded at http://www.encams.org. The university research paper can also be viewed at that website too.
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