McDonald’s UK has vowed that all its packaging will be made of recycled material by 2025 and is taking a couple of big steps towards that goal this year.
For the most part, we are probably all contributing to using recyclable materials when and where we can. The biggest way in which we as a society are trying to do that is by using plastic less and less. Truth be told, unless big corporations pledge to cut down how much plastic they use, we won’t make much of a difference.
Thankfully, some massive companies are cutting down their plastic use. One of the most notable is McDonald’s. The fast-food chain’s biggest use of plastic was to create its straws. An estimated eight billion per year in the UK alone. Last year, McDonald’s ditched its plastic straws for much more environmentally friendly paper ones.
It doesn’t plan on stopping there either. As of this week, the UK’s restaurants will no longer serve their salads in single-use plastics, instead dishing them up in cardboard boxes. Truth be told, not many people are going to McDonald’s for a salad, which is why the next way in which Maccy Ds is cutting down plastic use will probably be far more influential.
McFlurry lids. As of this September, in the UK, plastic McFlurry lids will be a thing of the past, reports The Independent. As with the salads, the packaging will switch to being made entirely of cardboard. We’re not 100% certain, but we believe the spoons designed to eat McFlurries with will still be made of plastic. It is estimated that the McFlurry and salad packaging changes will save 485 metric tonnes of plastic every year.
As for what McDonald’s has planned next is anyone’s guess. As mentioned above, the aim of the restaurant chain, at least in the UK, is for all of its packaging to be made of renewable and recycled resources by 2025. It has also pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 36% by the year 2030. Considering the amount of meat farming McDonald’s must do each year, we’d hazard to guess that 36% of whatever it emits now is a significant amount.
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