By 2025, McDonald’s will aim for 100 percent of its “guest packaging” to come from renewable, recycled, or certified sources with a preference for Forest Stewardship Council certification.
Also by 2025, the company has set a goal to recycle guest packaging in 100 percent of McDonald’s restaurants.
This expands upon McDonald’s existing goal that by 2020, 100% of fiber-based packaging will come from recycled or certified sources where no deforestation occurs.
“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,” said Francesca DeBiase, McDonald’s Chief Supply Chain and Sustainability Officer.
“Our ambition is to make changes our customers want and to use less packaging, sourced responsibly and designed to be taken care of after use, working at and beyond our restaurants to increase recycling and help create cleaner communities.”
“Our customers have told us that packaging waste is the top environmental issue they would like us to address. Our ambition is to make changes our customers want and to use less packaging, sourced responsibly and designed to be taken care of after use, working at and beyond our restaurants to increase recycling and help create cleaner communities.”
To reach these goals, McDonald’s says it will work with leading industry experts, local governments and environmental associations, to improve packaging and recycling practices.
Together they will work to drive smarter packaging designs, implement new recycling programs, establish new measurement programs and educate restaurant crew and customers, the restaurant chain says.
Currently, 50 percent of McDonald’s customer packaging comes from renewable, recycled or certified sources and 64 percent of fiber-based packaging comes from certified or recycled sources. Also, an estimated 10 percent of McDonald’s restaurants globally are recycling customer packaging.
“We look forward to doing more and continuing to raise the bar on what it means to be a responsible company committed to people and the planet,” DeBiase said.
