Questions answered

There are 10 questions about “Recycling” in the “What are you doing about...” topic.

Click on a question to read our answer.

1. I would say approximately 45% of your customers consume your food in your restaurants. Why is all your packaging one time use only? You don't use re-usable cups, plates and cutlery, so as to reduce your rubbish output. These items could simply be washed up, much more ecologically. You should do much more to reduce your rubbish emissions, as nothing is done at the moment other than using recyclable materials initially. Also, recycling facilities should be available for people to recycle clean single material items. Many thanks, best wishes, Richard Thomas.
McDonald's utilises disposable packaging for all food purchases, be they eat-in or take away for reasons of speed and efficiency. A typical restaurant in London's West End may serve between 700 to 800 customers in one hour. Our customers expect to receive good, hot food, quickly, and as such it is not operationally practicable to differentiate between disposable or re-usable packaging for each purchase. McDonald's can't recycle any customer rubbish currently due to food and drink residues on the packaging that prevent it from being recycled at standard recycling mills in the UK. The good news is that McDonald's does recycle cardboard waste, which represents 25 percent of a restaurant's total waste. And McDonald's is currently exploring other opportunities to divert waste from landfill, including the generation of green electricity from waste.

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2. I'm glad to hear that most of your food packaging is recyclable, but i is it possible to add recycling points in restaurants to further this good practice so we can keep recycling?
This is a matter that McDonald's is considering at the moment and may well be implemented in the future.

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3. My six year old noticed all the happy meal boxes being thrown away."we put our card in the green bin can't mcdonalds?" Well?
Your six-year-old is quite right to ask the question. The company has recently been running a waste auditing programme and recycling trials for customer packaging waste. Feedback from recycling companies has been that our packaging poses some challenges due to left over food residue on the packaging that prevents it from being recycled at standard recycling mills. However, McDonald’s are now exploring other opportunities, including the generation of green electricity from waste. The large majority of McDonald’s restaurants in the UK currently recycle all their cardboard waste and used cooking oil which represents around a quarter of the total restaurant waste produced.

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4. Why do you insist on using disposable packaging cups and cutlery despite the fact that here in britain we are rapidly running out of landfill sites and need to reduce the amount of rubbish we make not to mention the fact that the methane emitted from landfill contributes significantly to global warming?
McDonald’s utilises disposable packaging for all food purchases, be they eat-in or take away for reasons of speed and efficiency. A typical restaurant in London’s West End may serve between 700 to 800 customers in an hour. McDonald’s customers expect to receive good, hot food, quickly, and as such it is not practical to differentiate between disposable or reusable packaging for each purchase. McDonald’s is constantly reviewing its packaging design to ensure the minimum of waste is created and as much packaging as possible is sourced from renewable resources. One of the major challenges for recycling is down to the food residues which prevent packaging being recycled at standard recycling mills. However, McDonald’s is also exploring other opportunities which could include the generation of green electricity from the waste.

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5. I am impressed that most of your food packaging is now made out of recycled paper and card. I was wondering if it would be possible to provide recycling bins next to the waste bins in your restaurants so that the paper/card can be recycled again.
McDonald’s agrees that this would be a good thing, and is currently trialling different ways to recycle customer packaging waste in restaurants. Recycling food waste does poses some challenges due to food residues that prevent packaging being recycled at standard recycling mills. McDonald’s is also exploring other opportunities which could include the generation of green electricity from the waste.

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6. What is your feeling about the amount of waste McDonald's produces each day from wrapping and product presentation in general? Do you make use of recycled products and how do you forsee supporting the environment in the future?
Any waste is bad waste. It does not make business or environmental sense. McDonald’s aims to make sure that as much packaging as possible is made from renewable sources. All bags, tray liners and cup carriers are made from 100 percent recycled paper, and the packaging for Hamburgers, Fries, Chicken McNuggets and Apple Pies is made from 72 percent recycled paper. The company is also looking for ways to further minimise packaging waste.

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7. In response to the question on the makeupyourownmind.co.uk site that asks "What can you do to reduce packaging?" the response given talks only about using recycled materials. That all well and good, but what can or WILL McDonalds do to REDUCE packaging. Recycling, is not as effective as REDUCTION. What's the point of having a site like this, if you dodge the questions you yourselves have written? Cheers Simon
McDonald’s is not trying to dodge any uncomfortable questions, and as a company is committed to reducing packaging waste. Recently, waste has been minimised through the introduction of more re-usable delivery packaging and food containers. McDonald’ has also reduced packaging through design changes to a number of items such as cutlery, stir sticks and paper wraps. McDonald’s is constantly reviewing its packaging design to ensure a minimum of waste is created.

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8. why does the uk not sort out their rubbish the way they do it in Austria. By sorting out the food from the wrappers? this would be a great idea and better for the environment - when willl this be implemented also do you have to pay for tomoato sauce - sometimes it is 10p and sometimes it is free>?
McDonald’s UK is currently trialling different ways to recycle customer packaging waste in restaurants. This poses some challenges, mainly due to the food residues that prevent the packaging being recycled at standard recycling mills. However McDonald’s is also exploring other opportunities, which could include the generation of green electricity from the waste. As you note, not all McDonald’s restaurants charge customers for ketchup. However, a number of McDonald’s restaurants in the UK are run by franchisees, who sometimes charge extra for sauce sachets.

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9. You use recycled packaging, but you do not recycle the waste packaging after the food has been consumed, it just gets thrown away. Why don’t you have paper, cardboard and plastic recycling points for the waste? This is not very environmentally friendly at all. Customers notice
McDonald’s is currently running a waste auditing programme and is introducing recycling trials for customer packaging waste in restaurants. Left over food residues on the packaging creates some challenges as this prevents the packaging from being recycled at standard recycling mills. McDonald’s is also exploring other recycling opportunities, including the generation of green electricity from waste. The company currently recycles approximately 25 percent of all waste produced at most restaurants through the separation of cardboard and used cooking oil.

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10. Do macdonalds recycle any of their waste? I find that for a family of four the left over packaging is a lot, with drink trays and the happy meal boxes which i can recycle but burger boxes are too messy. My question is why don't macdonalds do more to recycle their packaging?
At the moment McDonald’s doesn't recycle used packaging as this poses some challenges due to left over food residues on the packaging that prevent it from being recycled at standard recycling mills. However the company is currently running trials to introduce customer packaging waste recycling in restaurants and is also exploring other opportunities, including the generation of green electricity from waste. The large majority of McDonald’s restaurants in the UK do currently recycle all their cardboard waste and used cooking oil and McDonald’s aims to have all company restaurants recycling cardboard waste by the end of 2006.

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