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Subway presents Sustainability Awards to vendors

August 17, 2010

The Subway restaurant chain recently presented Sustainability Awards to vendor partners Pactiv's PWP Industries of Vernon, Calif.; Matosantos Commercial Corp. of Vega Bajam, Puerto Rico; and Closed Loop Recycling of Smithfield, Australia.

The recognition is part of Subway's commitment to make its more than 33,000 restaurants worldwide more environmentally responsible.

Food distributor Matosantos created a state-of-the-art facility that features robust water recovery and treatment programs. The building also includes a reflective roof design, which reduces temperatures indoors by as much as 15 percent.

Closed Loop's new recycling initiative resulted in the removal of 130,000 tons of materials removed from a waste stream in Australia to be later recycled and remanufactured.

Pactiv's PWP Industries created a salad bowl and lid used by a majority of Subway locations that is made from a minimum of 25 percent post-consumer recycled content. Most of the content is derived from Coca-Cola brand soda and water bottles. Additionally, the company worked with Subway to re-design the bowls to use less plastic material while holding the same amount of food. This effort has allowed for more efficient bulk packaging.

The salad bowl will:

• Reduce the amount of plastic material used annually by 844,933 pounds;
• Reduce 25,542 cases of corrugate annually; and
• Reduce the carbon footprint by 24 percent or 84.8 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) per thousand containers produced.

Subway has taken numerous steps to make its restaurants more sustainable, including:

• The use of napkins with 100-percent recycled fiber;
• Towel and tissue products with 100-percent recycled material;
• 78 percent of paper packaging using recycled content;
• Plants and distribution centers strategically located to reduce transportation and fuel costs;
• Eight certified eco-stores, with more planned.

"We are committed to creating a sustainable environment in every aspect of our business," said Jan Risi, president of the Subway franchisee-run Independent Purchasing Cooperative (IPC). "But just saying you want to be sustainable won't make it happen. There needs to be a commitment on every level, from our franchisees to our distributors. We are lucky in that we have vendors that share our commitment to make the earth a better place for our children."