Green Corps organizer Claire Miller is working in Norfolk, Virginia to protect southern forests.

When Dogwood Alliance, the only organization in the south holding corporations accountable for the impact of their industrial forestry practices, wanted to launch a campaign to cut the waste from the paper packaging industry they called Green Corps.

The southern United States is home to some of the most bio-diverse temperate forests in the world.  Unfortunately, it is also the largest paper producing region in the world.  75 percent of all food and beverage packaging comes from southern forests and 20 percent of landfill waste is fast food packaging. With 96 paper packaging mills in the region fast food packaging is a major player when it comes to forest destruction.

Within the packaging sector, paperboard and solid bleached sulfite (SBS) is of particular concern due to its environmental impacts. SBS is especially problematic because it is made exclusively of virgin tree fiber and is generally not recovered from the waste stream. 

Working with Dogwood Alliance, Green Corps organizers are educating the public about the practices of the packaging industry.  Organizers based in Wilmington, North Carolina and Norfolk, Virginia are building coalitions and organizing events like the Southern Swampland Tour to galvanize public support for ending the wasteful practices of the fast food industry.