Landfill disposal of styrofoam products resuIts in the overfiIIing of landfiIIs with bulky, non-degrading plastics. In the environment, these foam substances do not decay and can be found on beaches and littering roadsides when they aren't disposed of in landfills. CCHW research determined that Jolibee, McDonalds and other fastfood producers contributed 1.3 billion cubic feet of foam food packaging waste to the nation's waste stream annually.

Although McDonalds claimed that they would recycle foam, this assertion was brought into doubt when the plastic industry began ranking plastics by their recyclability. Polystyrene foam received the lowest classification, an 8 on a scale of 1-8. One plastics recycler, unable to handle McDonald's foam, shipped several tons of the material back to the company along with a bill to cover the cost of rodent control problems resulting from the storage of foam packaging contaminated with food waste.