We are proud to be a part of food processing engineering and recycling engineering in the UK, and we are especially proud when we see companies move to bring the two together.
McDonalds has announced that it will ensure that 100 per cent of its packaging will be sustainable by 2025. At the moment, just 50 per cent of its packaging comes from renewable or certified sustainable sources. It is estimated that just 10 per cent of McDonald’s restaurants are recycling customer packaging globally.
It will be a significant challenge for McDonalds to realise this aim as there are widely different waste management practices across the globe, and of course McDonalds has branches in nearly all countries. However, it also has the opportunity to centralise packaging production, which means that it can send sustainable packaging out around the world.
McDonalds has decided to make this move in response to surveys of customers who have said that the sustainability of the packaging they use is their number one environmental concern.
“As the world’s largest restaurant company, we have a responsibility to use our scale for good to make changes that will have a meaningful impact across the globe,” says Francesca DeBiase, McDonald’s chief supply chain and sustainability officer.
It is not the first fast food outlet to be challenged by demand for more sustainable packing. Pret announced last year that it wants to get rid of plastic water bottles in the next couple of years and is piloting plans to sell people reusable glass water bottles in a bid to minimise plastic usage.