You might be seeing more of those familiar red, white, and blue Domino’s Pizza boxes in the coming months’ thanks to an aggressive new hiring initiative by the restaurant giant – and you’ll have an easier time recycling the boxes when you’re done scarfing down what’s inside. Domino’s, along with its franchises, recently announced plans to hire more than 20,000 people in the U.S. for both full and part-time positions. It also launched a new website that makes it easier to recycle delivery boxes.
The world’s largest pizza company said it would add jobs across the board, including delivery drivers, pizza makers, customer service reps, managers, and assistant managers. The new positions are needed to meet rising demand, fueled by lifestyle changes brought on by COVID-19. Domino’s was one of the rare restaurant chains to post a sales gain in its most recent quarterly report, as many companies were hurt by the COVID impact. Domino’s, on the other hand, might have benefited thanks to an increase in both contactless delivery orders and curbside delivery for take-out orders.
The pizza chain’s hiring announcement came on the heels of similar announcements by several peers, including McDonald’s, Chipotle Mexican Grill and Dunkin Brands. Those companies have also added tens of thousands of new jobs in recent weeks.
Domino’s new recycling website, recyclingdominos.com, was launched in July through a collaboration with WestRock, the company’s main box supplier. The site features instructions on how to recycle pizza boxes and what to do if a particular community doesn’t accept pizza boxes for recycling.
Because many consumers are unsure whether pizza boxes can be recycled, WestRock conducted a research study that evaluated the impact of typical amounts of residual grease and cheese. The study found that the presence of these amounts doesn’t affect the quality of finished corrugated products containing expected levels of recovered fibers. Earlier this year Domino’s and WestRock increased the recycled content in its pizza boxes from 40% to 72%.
“Our goal is that our customers will set aside any misconceptions they have around the recyclability of pizza boxes, read the facts and put their empty box in the recycling bin – or call their municipality and ask them to add pizza boxes to their collection,” Domino’s spokesman Tim McIntyre said in a statement.
Domino’s and WestRock are both members of The Recycling Partnership. a nonprofit that aims to improve accessibility to recycling. Domino’s, WestRock, and a second box supplier funded an initiative that lets municipalities update their recycling programs to include pizza boxes. Interested consumers can find a link to The Recycling Partnership’s toolkit on recycling.dominos.com, which they can then send to local recycling programs to encourage them to accept pizza boxes.
In a separate move, Domino’s and Crystal Geyser Alpine Spring Water launched a campaign to promote their use of sustainable packaging and encourage people to recycle more plastic bottles and cardboard. The campaign, dubbed “Simple…But Not Easy,” comes as more marketers of consumer packaged goods are investing in rPET bottles made from previously used plastics. The campaign includes a series of animated films highlighting Crystal Geyser’s commitment to nature conservation and sustainability.
Domino’s has also been an industry leader in helping communities navigate the COVID-19 crisis. In April, the company partnered with franchisees as part of a national effort to donate about 10 million slices of pizza to hospitals and medical centers, schoolkids and their families, health departments, grocery store workers, and others. All of the more than 6,100 Domino’s U.S. stores were expected to take part in the effort. One of the participating franchisees was Dave Cesarini, owner of four Domino’s Pizza locations in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He sent more than 100 pizzas to local hospitals, including Michigan Medicine and the VA Hospital, and planned to donate 700 more over the next several weeks.
Earlier in 2020, Domino’s raised $10 million to support St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital’s lifesaving mission: Finding cures. The donation was part of a 2015 pledge Domino’s made to raise $35 million in eight years for St. Jude.