Questions answered
There are 5 questions about “Waste” in the “What are you doing about...” topic.
Click on a question to read our answer.
- 1. I have seen questions being asked about why the food is disposed of after 10 minutes, which you have given a sufficient answer to. However, you have not sufficiently answered the question why this food could not be given away free to homeless people? I know there is less than 1% of waste, but this 1% of at least 3000 food items (in my opinion) made, would be 30 burgers a day. From each McDonalds. Could something not be done regarding this?
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Thank you for your question. As you mention, the amount of edible food that the average restaurant discards each day is actually such a small amount that it does not make it practical for a restaurant to give it away. Additionally food is wasted in bits and pieces throughout the day not consistently and it would be impossible to keep the waste all day until enough was collected to make any distribution worthwhile.
McDonald's works very hard to minimise the amount of food waste in all 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 the restaurants waste less than one percent of their food stock.
(December 2009)
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What are these? Delicious Digg Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon - 2. You mention that less than 1% of your food goes to waste. Does that include the food that people are not finishing and consequently are throwing out inside the restaurants?
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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.
(December 2009)
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What are these? Delicious Digg Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon - 3. How does McDonalds deal with environmental scanning with regards to its products?
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Thank you for your question. McDonald's UK has an environmental management programme for all its food and paper suppliers. This programme addresses the environmental impact associated with growing, processing, converting, packaging and distributing food and packaging items. Under this programme McDonald's work with its suppliers towards mutually established environmental goals and minimum standards. All suppliers complete an annual performance rating process for environmental management, which forms part of their annual business review.
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What are these? Delicious Digg Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon - 4. how much packaging from mcdonalds food did you bin last year (in tonnes)?
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McDonald’s works very hard 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. The value of the food McDonald’s wastes is under 1% of our turnover. For reasons of food safety and quality, McDonald’s does not hold cooked food for longer than a set time period. McDonald's cares about the environment and environmental issues are a primary concern of the company. McDonald's aims to make sure that as much of its packaging as possible is made from renewable resources. Bags, tray liners and cup carriers are made from 100 percent recycled paper, and packaging for Burgers, French Fries, Chicken McNuggets and Apple Pies is made from 72 percent recycled paper. McDonalds' has minimised the environmental impact of its packaging changing its salad containers from plastic bases to paper and also removing foamed polystyrene from its breakfast packaging. Together this sees a removal of close to 152 tonnes of plastic by switching to a paper, which is a sustainable/renewable resource.
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. However, McDonald’s is also exploring other recycling opportunities, including the generation of green electricity from waste and composting.
(March 09)
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What are these? Delicious Digg Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon - 5. What happens to the food left over at the end of the days trade and after the Breakfast menu has finished. Does it get wasted if it does why can't you sell it cheaper to reduce waste?
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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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