Sustainable shake-up for McDonalds menu
Continuing the sustainability drive which saw McDonalds replace all plastic straws with paper versions last summer, the fast food giant has now announced McFlurry plastic lids will be removed completely and all single-use plastic packaging across the salad ranges will be replaced with sustainably sourced cardboard.
Print25 June 2019
- Last June, McDonalds made waves on the sustainability front with the decision to replace over 8 billion plastic straws used annually across the UK and Ireland with paper versions and from tomorrow (26 June onwards), the McDonald’s Ireland menu is set to benefit another sustainable shake-up. The return of the Smarties McFlurry will herald a change to the way the range is packaged, with the removal of plastic lids from all McFlurry options reducing plastic waste by 383 metric tonnes annually.
Single-use plastic will also be removed from McDonald’s salads – main meal and side salads will now be served in 100% renewable and recyclable cardboard containers. Changing out the existing plastic bowl, shaker salad cups and lids will result in 102 metric tons of plastic being removed annually. These containers are made from ‘carton board’ which contains 50% recycled content and 50% new, which itself comes from certified sustainable sources. The coating on the containers, designed to keep them rigid, is also 100% renewable.
In total, the new packaging across the McFlurry and salads range will reduce plastic waste by 485 metric tonnes annually. The changes are part of the business’ ongoing commitment to move to more sustainable packaging; globally McDonald’s has committed to source all packaging from renewable or recycled sources by 2025.
Describing the move as “the latest step in our sustainability journey”, Beth Hart, supply chain director, McDonald’s UK & Ireland said it represented “great progress”.
“We are committed to listening to our customers and finding solutions with our suppliers that work for them, this is the latest example of that – but by no means the end,” she said
“We continue to look for solutions for our cutlery and lids, for example, but this is great progress,” Hart added. “For us, sustainability is about more than just packaging. We have to look at the whole journey – by 2030 we’re committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 36%.”
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