McDonald's Aim to Use 100% Recycled Packaging by 2025

McDonald’s Aims to Use 100% Recycled Packaging by 2025

Fast food giant McDonald’s has set itself a target for 100% of its packaging to come from renewable, recycled, or certified sustainable sources by 2025 and by the same year, they want to recycle the packaging used in every single one of their restaurants.

Taking responsibility

The company’s supply chain and sustainability officer said that as the world’s largest restaurant company, they have a responsibility to use their influence to make meaningful changes that will help the environment.

McDonalds set the target in response to feedback from their customers that packaging waste was the top environmental issue that they wanted the company to address. Customers said that they wanted less packaging, responsibly sourced packaging, and packaging that is easy to recycle.

How will they reach these goals?

McDonalds plans to work with industry experts, local authorities, and environmental organisations to improve packaging and recycling standards and infrastructure. They’ll work to develop better packaging, introduce new recycling programmes and programmes to educate their staff and customers about recycling. At the moment, 50% of McDonald’s packaging comes from renewable, recycled, or certified sustainable sources and 64% of fibre-based packaging comes from certified sustainable or recycled sources. 10% of the company’s restaurants across the world recycle their packaging. The company say that they want to do more and set the standard for what it means to be a sustainable company.

What else do McDonalds do?

They use sustainably-sourced packaging

Every piece of paper or card they use comes from sources that have been certified as sustainable by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or the Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC).

They recycle their cooking oil into Biodiesel

The company’s fleet of trucks runs on Biodiesel, 40% of which is made from the oil they use for cooking. The biodiesel is made at a UK plant that is powered by energy generated by the company’s kitchen waste like coffee grounds and egg shells.

Their paper cups are recycled in the UK

They send paper cups used in their restaurants to specialist recycling facilities in the UK.