lagging behind the rest of the developed world, american brands continue to opt for the worst packaging materials, according to a report released thursdaychildren at the opening of a new dunkin&rsquo donuts in beijing. a survey determined that the company&rsquos packaging &ldquoneeds improvement.&rdquo photograph reutpxbig brands, including burger king, dunkin donuts, kfc, kraft foods and millercoors, are wasting billions of dollars worth of valuable materials because they sell food and drinks in subpar packaging, according to a comprehensive new report on packaging and recycling by the fast food, beverage, consumer goods and grocery industries.the 62page rank&lsquoemandspank&lsquoem study, waste and opportunity 2015, was published thursday by advocacy nonprofits as you show and the natural resources defense council. they found that few companies have robust sustainable packaging policies or systemwide programs to recycle packages. indeed, no company was awarded their highest rating of &ldquobest practices.&rdquothe environmental groups did identify a number of leaders, albeit flawed ones. in the beverage industry, new belgium brewing, cocacola, nestlé waters and pepsico won praise. starbucks and mcdonald&rsquos are said to be a cut above their competitors in fast food and quickserve restaurants. as for consumer goods companies and grocery stores, the report offers qualified praise for walmart, procter & gamble, colgatepalmolive and unilever.broadly, though, this study paints a discouraging picture. what progress has been made is incremental and spotty, not comprehensive. as often than not, singleuse packages of food and drinks are made from virgin materials and then tossed in the trash.as the report notes, with an overall recycling rate of 34.5 and an estimated packaging recycling rate of 51, the united states lags behind many other developed countries. less than 14 of plastic packaging &mdash the fastestgrowing form of packaging &mdash is recycled. recyclable postconsumer packaging with an estimated market value of 11.4bn is wasted annually.six ways graphene could make the world a greener placeread moreperhaps most significantly, public policy around packaging has advanced at a snail&rsquos pace. while businesses in the eu and elsewhere help finance comprehensive recycling programs through what are called &ldquoextended producer responsibility&rdquo fees, only a handful of companies &mdash led by nestle water, cocacola and new belgium &mdash have expressed a willingness to support that approach in the us.&ldquobrand leadership is sorely lacking,&rdquo said conrad mckerron, a senior vice president of as you sow and a report author, at a news conference releasing the report thursday. &ldquothis all comes down to responsibility. brands will tell us, &lsquowe&rsquore not in the waste business.&rsquo we think that, in the future, this is a part of corporate stewardship that needs to happen.&rdquosome companies are even moving backwards. the report decries the rapid growth of flexible, layered plastic packaging that is not recyclable, citing kraft&rsquos caprisun juice pouches as an example &ldquoif all capri sun pouches discarded annually in the united states were laid end to end, they would circle the earth nearly five times they would also entirely cover the land area of california and texas,&rdquo the report says.on the other hand, honest tea, a unit of cocacola, has said that in response to concerns about the recyclability of pouches, it would shift its honest kids organic juice packaging towards aseptic containers, which are also composites but can be more easily recycled. &ldquothis is encouraging news,&rdquo mckerron said.other activities deemed praiseworthy by the report includedstarbucks&rsquo promise to serve 25 of all beverages in its stores in reusable mugs or tumblers by 2015, even though the coffee giant backtracked, saying it would reach only 5. starbucks uses 10 postconsumer recycled content in its cups, and mcdonald&rsquos uses 33 postconsumer recycled content in its sandwich boxes.pepsico remains the only major beverage company maintaining a consistent amount &mdash at least 10 &mdash of pet content in its containers. pepsico and cocacola are both moving forward to introduced plantbased pet bottles.walmart was cited for achieving its commitment to reduce packaging across its global supply chain by 5, and for its goal of increasing its use of postconsumer recycled plastic in products and packaging by 3bn lbs by 2020. the giant retailer has also backed a 100m loan fund to finance municipal projects to boost recycling, which at least acknowledges responsibility for the problem, mckerron said.of the 47 companies surveyed, most were graded as &ldquoneeds improvement&rdquo or &ldquolaggards,&rdquo for various reasons. among the restaurants, dunkin&rsquo brands, subway, chickfila, chipotle, panera bread and yum brands were categorized as &ldquoneeds improvement.&rdquo arby&rsquos, quizno&rsquos, burger king, wendy&rsquos, jack in the box, dairy queen, domino&rsquos pizza and papa john&rsquos pizza were identified as &ldquopoor&rdquo for showing little to no leadership, based on information they make public.in the beverage industry, dr pepper, snapple group, diageo and anheuser busch were categorized as &ldquoneeds improvement.&rdquo heineken, millercoors, boston beer, and red bull were identified as &ldquopoor.&rdquothe report, which is rich in anecdotes as well as data, is intended to prod companies to take a closer look at their practices, especially in light of growing consumer concern about plastics in the ocean. nrdc&rsquos darby hoover said food and beverage packaging is a &ldquoprime component of the plastic pollution in our oceans and waterways&rdquo, and that companies have &ldquoan opportunity and an obligation&rdquo to curb it.the circular economy hub is funded by philips. all content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled &lsquobrought to you by&rsquo. find out more here. 
