McDonald's to recycle packaging in all 37,000 restaurants by 2025
McDonald's Tuesday said that by 2025, 100 percent of McDonald's guest packaging will come from renewable, recycled or certified sources.
Responding to a top customer request, the hamburger giant also said that by 2025, the company has set a goal to recycle guest packaging in 100 percent of McDonald's restaurants. McDonald's said that it understands that recycling infrastructure, regulations and consumer behaviors vary city to city and country to country around the world, but it plans to be part of the solution and help influence powerful change.
This expands upon McDonald's existing goal that by 2020, 100 percent 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 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 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.
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.
McDonald's has more than 37,000 locations in over 100 countries.