Questions answered

There are 4 questions about “Recycling” in the “What are you doing about...” topic.

Click on a question to read our answer.

1. Can I draw your attention to a community ‘clean-up’ day at a Liverpool Beauty spot on the 27th May. I am sending this request to McDonalds as the local business that is the origin of the majority of rubbish at this site. We are fielding offers of support towards items such as benches, flowers etc. can you contribute?
Thanks for letting us know about this opportunity to support your event. Can you please send more details of this to Helen.McFarlane@uk.mcd.com so that the local restaurants can have the chance to get involved? (May 2011)

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2. Hi, please can you tell me when you'll have recycling bins in your restaurants? I'm aware of the problem where food contaminates recycling, however I and many of your customers are able to separate this waste from untouched paper and cardboard waste. If other chains can do it, why can't you? I'm only one, very regular customer, but I'll no longer be using your restaurants if you don't start making progress on all of this soon. P.S. energy from waste does not count!
Thanks for your question. McDonald’s are working on waste separation but at present cannot commit to a date when this will be available. The reason for the delay is that at the moment the infrastructure doesn't exist nationally for us to recycle separated waste without adding extra vehicle journeys into our waste disposal, which would increase our carbon footprint by more than the carbon saved in recycling. This is why we're treading carefully to make sure that whatever system we end up with both increases recycling AND reduces carbon. (Jan 2010)

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3. I want to ask you about recycling issues. As you know, the cost of recycling is more costly than producing new goods. So my questions are where does the money which used for recycling come from? Are they come from consumer? For example, when I buy a Big Mac, the price has already included recycling money? Is that true??? Thank you!!
Thank you for your question and your interest in recycling. At present it is in some instances cheaper to recycle and in some instances cheaper to produce new goods. Materials for recycling, like paper and cardboard, are commodities and therefore the prices charged for them fluctuate considerably. So there is no hard and fast rule about the relative cost. At McDonald's UK we always try to bring the customer great value, and at the same time reduce our impact on the environment, so that we can bring you a Big Mac that combines great environmental values at a great price. 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. 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 and 25 in London 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. McDonald's is also currently investigating and trialing various different cleansing /separation techniques in regional areas to determine if waste can be diverted from landfill utilising different technologies other than energy from waste. (December 2009)

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4. Have McDonalds tried using compostable food packaging and drinks containers so all food and food wrapping on the food service trays could be composted thus increasing the recycling rates.
Thank you for your question. McDonald’s takes its environmental responsibility very seriously and recycles approximately a quarter of all waste produced at most restaurants through the separation of cardboard and used cooking oil. Specifically, McDonald's is committed to running its entire UK fleet on 100 per cent bio-diesel, made from recycled cooking oil from restaurants, combined with a limited amount of rapeseed oil. The carbon saving of the move will be 1,675 tonnes annually when the national rollout is completed - the equivalent of removing 2,424 family cars from the road each year. The problem, which McDonald’s face 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 in 12 of its restaurants in Dorset during October 2008. 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, in which each restaurant conducts at least three daily litter 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. (April 2009)

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