McDonald’s to scrap plastic salad containers & McFlurry lids

McDonald’s is scrapping plastic salad containers and McFlurry ice cream lids, ditching a claimed 485 tonnes of single-use plastic a year.

Salads will be served in cardboard containers, disposing of the plastic bowl, shaker salad cups and lids used currently.

The cardboard is 50% recycled and 50% new, from certified sustainable sources.

The coating on the containers is also claimed to be 100% renewable.

Plastic lids will be removed from all McFlurry options in September.

The cardboard salad boxes will save 102 tonnes of plastic a year while the lidless McFlurries will save 383 tonnes, according to McDonald’s.

“I am delighted that today’s news means we will be serving our much-loved and new menu items in an even more sustainable way,” Beth Hart, supply chain director, McDonald’s UK & Ireland. “Removing plastic lids from the McFlurry, and introducing new cardboard packaging for salads, will save nearly 500 metric tonnes of plastic a year. It’s the latest step in our sustainability journey. We are committed to listening to our customers and finding solutions with our suppliers that work for them. This is the latest example of that, but by no means the end. We continue to look for solutions for our cutlery and lids, for example, but this is great progress.

“For us, sustainability is about more than just packaging. We have to look at the whole journey - by 2030 we’re committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 36%.”

In 2018 the business announced it would replace more than eight billion plastic straws used annually by customers in the UK with paper straws.

The changes are part of the business’ ongoing commitment to move to more sustainable packaging, cutting out all single-use plastic by 2025.