Questions answered

There are 5 questions about “Recycling” in the “How do you operate?” topic.

Click on a question to read our answer.

1. What do you do about recycling waste? I was told by one of your staff nothing is recycled and that it all gets dumped together in a big industrial bin but you must throw away tons of plastic bottles and cardboard everyday . I hope you don't send it all to landfill.
Thank you for your question. McDonald's takes environmental responsibilities very seriously and is committed to reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill. McDonald's recycles all its cardboard packaging. We also have 100% bio-diesel produced from our used cooking oil. This is used to run our delivery fleet. Further, bun trays and shake containers are reused, and there have been design improvements for packaging such as reducing plastic in salad containers and removing all foamed polystyrene. Unfortunately, recycling customer waste is very difficult in the UK, as paper waste that has food residue is not accepted at recycling facilities, and nor are many types of plastic. So rather than send waste to landfill we work hard to 'recover' as much as possible. For example, waste from 11 McDonald's restaurants in Sheffield is currently being diverted from landfill and sent to an energy-from-waste facility. This project is proving so successful for food-contaminated waste that the company is now looking to expand this project to other parts of the country, where the facilities exist. Additionally, McDonald's has conducted a compost trial for 12 of its restaurants in Dorset and currently are awaiting results of the test.

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2. why do you not provide recycling bins within your resturants?
Although McDonald’s does not directly provide recycling bins the company certainly takes its environmental responsibility very seriously. The problem is that much of the waste produce in the restaurants is ‘food-contaminated’, providing a challenge in discovering an appropriate method in terms of recycling. McDonald’s is running permanent pilots where 11 restaurants send their waste to an energy from waste facility that generates energy to be used for heating and powering local buildings. This project was so successful for food-contaminated waste that McDonald’s are now looking to expand this project to other parts of the country where the facilities exist. Additionally, McDonald’s is currently investigating and trailing various different technologies such as composting. Further, the company's delivery fleet from 2 of its 3 distributions centres are running on 100% bio-diesel made from recycled cooking oil. Once the whole fleet is converted this will be the equivalent of removing 2,424 family cars from the road each year. Locally McDonald's has an extensive litter management programme that aims to control litter around the restaurants, and also to educate and inform customers and the wider community about the importance of environmental protection. McDonald's was the first restaurant to introduce 'Litter Patrols' in the UK. This involves each restaurant conducting at least three daily patrols whereby members of staff go out and pick up not only McDonald's packaging, but also any other litter that has been carelessly discarded. Litterbins are provided outside all McDonald’s restaurants and the company is one of the biggest sponsors of council provided litterbins in the country. (Feb 2009)

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3. although i admire your present efforts for recycling and conservation.When i am on my own i ask your staff to hold the bag as it is sometimes an unecessary waste of packaging and i reuse my cups 2to3 times a day .Any response will be appreciated
McDonald’s commends your efforts and attitude to recycling. The company also takes its environmental responsibilities very seriously and is committed to implementing changes to the way it conducts its business in order to have a positive effect on the environment. McDonald’s also aims to mirror your efforts in recycling, however due to the size of the company this needs to be carried out on a much larger scale, therefore more planning, preparation and ingenuity is required to ensure that the company is achieving its recycling objectives in as positive a manner as possible. As you may be aware, the company already recycles a quarter of all its waste created at restaurants, and aims to increase this figure as time goes on. Since the end of 2009, the company’s entire UK delivery fleet will be running on biodiesel made from recycled cooking oil combined with a limited amount of rapeseed oil: this will be the equivalent of removing 2,424 family cars from the road each year At present the company is trying to overcome the challenge of dealing with ‘food-contaminated waste’, with the completion of a recent trial, during which 11McDonald's restaurants were sending their waste to an energy from waste facility which generates energy that is used to heat and power local buildings. This project was so successful for food contaminated waste that McDonald’s are now looking to expand this project to other parts of the country where the facilities exist. Additionally, McDonalds is currently investigating and trialling various different cleansing /separation techniques in regional areas to determine if waste can be diverted from landfill utilising different technologies. Suffice it to say, there is a lot going on and the company remains committed to finding the best possible solutions. McDonald's is constantly reviewing its packaging. It aims to reduce the packaging it uses and also increase the amount of renewable sourced packaging it purchases, for example we phased out plastic bags from all our restaurants due to the impact they have on the environment. Staff are also instructed to ask customers if they need a paper bag to avoid wastage. (August 2008)

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4. Why don't you put recycling bins inside your restaurants?
McDonald's takes environmental responsibilities very seriously and is committed to reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill, through recycling, recovery, design improvements and re-use. Efforts to recycle customer waste have been unsuccessful so far as paper waste that has food on it is rejected, as are many types of plastic. McDonald’s has been unable to find a company to undertake the recycling. McDonald’s therefore tries to ‘recover’ as much waste as possible rather than send it to landfill. Waste can be sent for use as biomass, to offset the use of fossil fuels, so the company is looking at a waste-to-energy pilot scheme. Three-quarters of the company restaurants recycle all of their cardboard, and the aim is to increase this to 100 percent this year. Cardboard is about 25 percent of a restaurant's total waste. McDonald’s also now converts it’s used cooking oil into bio diesel to power most of its fleet of delivery trucks. (June 2007)

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5. What happens to all of the rubbish that goes in your bins? Is any of it recycled?
McDonald’s is unable to recycle any customer rubbish due to food and drink residues on the packaging that prevent it from being recycled at standard recycling mills in the UK. Trials are taking place around this issue, though, and the company is hoping to find a solution soon. McDonald’s does recycle cardboard waste, which represents 25 percent of a restaurant’s total waste. And the company is currently exploring other opportunities to divert waste from landfill, including the generation of green electricity from waste.

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