Fresh & Easy Makes the Holidays a Little Greener

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Dec 16, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market today launched its second annual holiday card recycling program, encouraging customers to recycle used greeting cards at its stores. Proceeds from the sale of the recycled cards will go to American Forests, a non-profit organization that focuses on planting trees in restoration areas throughout the country.

Fresh & Easy's holiday card recycling program will continue through mid-January 2009. A holiday card collection box is located at the front of each store. The money raised through the program will be used by American Forests to plant trees across America, in areas that need them most.

. With the help of its customers, Fresh & Easy raised enough money for American Forests to plant 1,000 trees last year. 500 trees were planted in Arizona's Kaibab National Forest as a response to the devastation of the 2006 Warm Fire. The other 500 trees were planted in California's Klamath National Forest to help save several endangered species after the Elk Fire.

"We want to make it easier for customers to make more environmentally friendly decisions," said CEO Tim Mason, Fresh & Easy. "If everyone in the neighborhood brings their holiday cards back to our stores to be recycled, we can make a big difference." American Forests' mission is to grow a healthier world through tree planting and education on restoration.

"Through both natural disasters and human actions, our forests are disappearing at an alarming rate. The latest figures from the NIFC (National Interagency Fire Center) show that an estimated 5.3 million acres have been destroyed by wildfire during 2008 alone," said Greg Meyer, Vice President of Marketing and Development at American Forests. "The need to restore our nation's forests is greater than ever."

Source http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Fresh-Easy-Makes-Holidays-a/story.