Keep America Beautiful and NACS have partnered to produce the new resource, 鈥淏eing a Good Neighbor: A Guide to Reducing Litter, Managing Trash and Encouraging Recycling.鈥� The guide provides quick and easy tips for convenience stores to improve their customers鈥� experience, help the environment and, ultimately, enhance their reputation and bottom line. It includes information from Keep America Beautiful鈥檚 landmark 鈥淟itter in America鈥� research from 2009鈥攃omprised of the 鈥淣ational Visible Litter Survey鈥� and 鈥淟itter Cost Study鈥濃�攁s well as from jointly developed consumer and retailer surveys and audits conducted this year by NACS and Keep America Beautiful.
The guide includes a checklist to examine litter management practices at convenience stores as well as practical tips to help retailers reduce and ultimately eliminate litter in and around their stores. It also provides recommendations for recycling bin and trash receptacle placements to help make proper disposal of packaging items easy and accessible. And retailers also share techniques to engage employees, customers and the greater community.
鈥淲ith convenience stores comprising 34% of all retailer business, convenience store operators can play an instrumental role in providing customers with convenient trash and recycling containers to lessen litter and improve recycling at their locations,鈥� said Brenda Pulley, Keep America Beautiful鈥檚 senior vice president, recycling. 鈥淜eep America Beautiful is pleased to team up with the NACS to provide best practices for managing trash and recycling with the new 鈥楤eing a Good Neighbor鈥� guide.鈥�
According to Keep America Beautiful research, the most people properly dispose of trash in receptacles. But nearly one in five disposals (17%) ends up as litter. Packaging, including fast food, snack, beverage and tobacco packaging, comprises nearly half (47%) of items in the 鈥渧isible鈥� litter stream, according to Keep America Beautiful research.
Meanwhile, NACS research shows that consumers overwhelmingly say that convenience store appearance is important: 84% of consumers fueling up say cleanliness of the store is an important factor when considering whether they will shop at a particular store. The new resource guide shares best practices that help retailers manage waste to keep their properties clean, including placement and design of trash receptacles.
鈥淟itter impacts how people perceive your brand, even if they litter a cup with your logo on it somewhere else,鈥� said Lisa Dell鈥橝lba, one of the many retailers surveyed for the guide. Dell鈥橝lba is president & CEO of Square One Markets (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) and a member of the NACS Board of Directors.
Convenience stores spend more than $600 per store per month for recycling and trash collection programs鈥攐r about $1.3 billion industry-wide on an annual basis. But the payoff is worth the expense: U.S. convenience stores continue to grow their foodservice sales, which climbed 12.9% to $49 billion in 2016, per NACS State of the Industry data.
鈥淜eep America Beautiful has been the nation鈥檚 steward for litter prevention for nearly 65 years. We recognize that foodservice and product packaging is a significant part of the litter stream, and we鈥檙e pleased to partner on this guide to help convenience stores and their customers reduce litter. It鈥檚 good for the environment and good for the community, and ultimately good for business because consumers support businesses that support the communities they serve,鈥� said NACS Vice President of Strategic Industry Initiatives Jeff Lenard.
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