McDonald’s commits to remove plastic cutlery Australia-wide
McDonald’s commits to remove plastic cutlery Australia-wide
March 3, 2020
Press Release: McDonald's Australia
McDonald’s Australia has announced it will be phasing out plastic cutlery from all its restaurants nationwide by the end of this year
The transition to fiber-based cutlery means ‘Macca’s’ will be removing 585 tons of plastic per year.
This commitment is in addition to McDonald’s decision to transition to an alternative straw option later this year. The move away from plastic straws by McDonald’s in Australia equates to 500 million plastic straws being removed from circulation annually.
“We’re committed to being an industry leader in sustainable practices, ultimately using our scale for good to positively impact challenges facing the communities we operate in,” said Kylie Freeland, McDonald’s Australia, director of Supply Chain and Sustainability. “By removing plastic straws and cutlery from McDonald’s restaurants, we are continuing to reduce our environmental footprint and will be removing more than 860 tons of plastic from our system.”
For more than a decade now, McDonald’s has been actively scoping and introducing initiatives that reduce the plastic used within its packaging requirements, with the removal of plastic lids from McFlurry cups, salad bowls being replaced with a fiber-based alternative and sundae cups now being lighter in weight.
These changes alone removed nearly 250 tons of plastic from McDonald’s Australia restaurants, and by weight, now 85% of Macca’s packaging is fiber-based.
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