Questions answered
There are 21 questions about “Waste” in the “How do you operate?” topic.
Click on a question to read our answer.
- 1. I asked a question on this website approximately 6 weeks about why McDonalds have removed waste bins from outside their premises. To date have not received either a reply or even an acknowledgment. Please now investigate this enquiry. Thank you.
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Firstly, many apologies for the very slow response to your question, as the site went through a few changes and technical updates some questions had slipped through so thank you for your patience in waiting for your answer. Please continue to send in your questions and check back on the site from time to time for all the latest on Make Up Your Own Mind. In regards to your original question, McDonald’s takes littering very seriously and has an extensive litter management programme in place that aims to control litter around the restaurants, and inform customers about the importance of environmental protection. McDonald’s was the first company to introduce ‘Litter Patrols’ in the UK. Members of staff go out at least three times a day to pick up not only McDonald's packaging, but also any other litter. McDonald’s is also one of the country’s biggest sponsors of council litter bins, and provides bins outside all McDonald’s restaurants. In addition, all McDonald’s packaging carries an anti-littering symbol supported by signage in restaurants and car parks. Would you please be able to provide the address of the restaurant which you have noted the bins which have been removed so an investigation can take place to access what exactly occurred?
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What are these? Delicious Digg Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon - 2. how much waste does MacDonalds produce a day ?
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The waste generated by a McDonald’s restaurant will vary according to factors such as location, frequency of visitors, product mix, and percentage of eat-in and take away orders, and opening hours. For example, a drive thru can produce from 91 kg to 153 Kg a day while a high street restaurant can produce around 104 kg per day. It has been calculated by McDonald’s waste contractor that on average a McDonald’s restaurant produces 125 kg waste per day.
(December 2007)
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What are these? Delicious Digg Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon - 3. Is it true that rubbish thrown out at english restaurants is collected by McDonalds and sent to poor countries like Spain and Turkey to be sold at McDonalds there?
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No, this is not true. McDonald's tries to minimise the amount of food waste from its restaurants. The company monitors the amount of food sold at different times throughout each day, and the restaurants use this information to ensure that they only order and prepare the amount of food that is likely to be sold. As a result McDonald's restaurants waste less than one percent of food stock. Any wasted food is disposed of with the general waste.
(August 2007)
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What are these? Delicious Digg Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon - 4. how much packaging waste is produced each year in Britain? Can you help me?
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Apologies for our late reply but we hope we can help. According to the environment agency Netregs website (www.netregs.gov.uk), the UK produces around 10 million tonnes of packaging waste. The Industry Council for packaging and the environment (www.icpen.org) states that just over 50% of all used packaging is recovered. Less than 5% of total waste sent to landfill is used packaging, whether measured by weight or volume.
(September 2007)
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What are these? Delicious Digg Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon - 5. Disposing of unsold food in a short 10 minute timeframe is an insult to people that are starving. Can you not offer this food to homeless people for free etc.
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McDonald's works to minimise the amount of food waste in all its restaurants, and as a result the comparatively small amount of food wasted does not make it practical for the company to give it away. The company monitors the amount of food sold at different times throughout each day, and the restaurants use this information to ensure that they only order and prepare the amount of food that is likely to be sold. As a result the restaurants waste less than one percent of their food stock. McDonald's is also introducing a new system this year that will mean that all chicken menu items are cooked to order, further reducing waste.
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What are these? Delicious Digg Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon - 6. why don't you give out food to homeless people instead of throwing it away? there's always lots of homeless people outside the mcdonalds in my town
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The simple answer is McDonald's produces very little edible wastage indeed, less than one percent. This is because each restaurant works to a system that calculates how many customers can be expected at any one time and therefore how much food to make. Because the food needs to be hot, the maximum period between cooking and serving is ten minutes which gives the restaurant time to adjust these calculations if necessary.
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What are these? Delicious Digg Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon - 7. How much 'yellow grease' do McDonalds restaurants produce annually in the UK, Europe, US, worldwisde?
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McDonald's don't have international figures produced for this but McDonald's UK uses about 4 000 metric tonnes of cooking oil in the UK each year. All of this oil is collected for reprocessing into either biodeisel or for other technical processes such as lubricants or soaps. A small amount of animal fats are also released during the hamburger cooking process which are collected from the sides of grills and go into landfill rather than the drainage system. McDonald's are always trying to improve their recycling process and looking for alternatives.
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What are these? Delicious Digg Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon - 8. I once saw rats scurrying around amongst a mountain of rubbish outside the back door of one of your restaurants. What have you got to say about that?
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Restaurant hygiene and food safety is of the utmost importance to McDonald’s, and restaurant staff are well-trained in this area. McDonald’s restaurants are subject to the most stringent hygiene and safety directives and any reports of suspected infestation would be dealt with immediately. You might be interested to hear that a number of McDonald’s restaurants have recently been awarded four five-star, 50 four-star and 2 three-star awards in the ‘Quick Service/Fast Food Restaurants Category’ of The Loo of the Year Awards 2006. An inspector visits restaurants that provide ‘away from home’ facilities for customers and staff. Stars are awarded on a scale of one to five against a wide range of criteria including décor, and overall standards of cleanliness and management. If you do notice anything in McDonald’s that you feel is unhygienic, please speak to the restaurant manager or call the Customer Services Team on 08705 244 622 so that your concerns can be investigated.
(May 2007)
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What are these? Delicious Digg Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon - 9. I read another answer which said if food (burgers in this case) are not sold within 10 minutes they are disposed of. Do you just throw these in the trash and that's the end of it? If so that is a disgraceful waste of what is probably way too many lbs of beef.
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McDonald's works to minimise the amount of food waste from its restaurants. The company monitors the amount of food sold at different times throughout each day, and the restaurants use this information to ensure that they only order and prepare the amount of food that is likely to be sold. As a result McDonald's restaurants waste less than one percent of their food stock. For reasons of food safety and quality, McDonald's does not hold cooked food for longer than a set time period.
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What are these? Delicious Digg Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon - 10. have choosen macdonald as a case study for waste audit and minimization plan. The report will incude the business, raw materials, products,wastes. Effort of management and staff in develping the plan. what are the benefits of minimizing the waste
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Any waste is bad waste. It does not make business or environmental sense. McDonald's takes environmental responsibilities very seriously and is committed to reducing the amount of waste we send to landfill, through recycling, recovery, design improvements and re-use. Three-quarters of our company restaurants recycle all of their cardboard, and we aim to increase this to 100 percent by April 2007. Cardboard is about 25 percent of a restaurant's total waste. Delivery packaging is reused wherever possible. The majority of our restaurants waste less than one percent of their food stock and all used cooking oil is recycled. 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 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.
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What are these? Delicious Digg Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon - 11. is the disposal of burgers over 10 minutes old not an incredibe waste of company money, andimal life, and resources. why are burgers not just made to order?
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As a fast food restaurant, McDonald’s aims to serve its customers in as short a time as possible and as efficiently as possible. Less than 1 percent of the food that McDonald's restaurants order goes to waste. This is a lower figure than the industry standard, and is achieved by efficient food management, predicting customer numbers on any given day and ordering processes.
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What are these? Delicious Digg Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon - 12. What do you do with the spare Happy Meal toys when that promotion has expired?
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The toys are stored either at the restaurant or the distribution centre. When there is a gap between specific promotions McDonald’s uses stock from previous promotions in the Happy Meals.
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What are these? Delicious Digg Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon - 13. If you get an order rong or give someone more than what they wanted why do just put it in the bin rather than giving the customer it back for being honest???
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For reasons of hygiene, returned products must be thrown away. McDonald’s appreciates your honesty, and if you are unhappy with the way your order has been treated at any time, please contact your restaurant manager or the Customer Services Team on 08705 244 622.
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What are these? Delicious Digg Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon - 14. where dose all the scrap meat go in mcdonalds????
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McDonald’s only uses whole cuts from the front portion of beef cattle known as the forequarter and flank, an area from the neck to the mid waist and down to the upper front legs. This is the same kind of meat you would find in mince from a supermarket or a butcher. The rear of the animal is the source of prime cuts such as the rump, the filet and ribeye. These hindquarters supply one of Britain’s leading supermarkets with their steaks. Other parts of the animal such as offal, the spinal cord, head and feet are disposed of and are not used by McDonald’s.
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What are these? Delicious Digg Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon - 15. Do you make efforts to ensure that as many parts of cattle are used in your food as possible, so that cattle are not slaughtered just for most of their bodies to be thrown away?
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Yes. McDonald’s only uses whole cuts of the forequarter and flank (the front shoulders and sides of cattle) in McDonald’s burgers. The rest of the carcase, that is, the hindquarter, is used by the UK’s leading supermarkets for their steaks, roasting joints etc. None of the carcase is wasted – only the inedible parts of the body, such as the feet, spinal cord and offal, have to be thrown away.
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