As you probably already know, plastic straws are terrible on the environment. Ugh!
Fortunately McDonald's is taking a step to help the environment. Starting next month the fast food giant will launch a paper straw pilot program in a small percentage of its 1,300 UK restaurants. Additionally, plastic straws will be kept behind the counter and only handed out upon customer request -- forcing those customers to feel a little bit of shame, or so I would assume. SHAME!
McDonald's has around 3.7 million customers every day, with 90% of the UK population visiting one of its restaurants in the average year -- so that's a lot of straws.
According to McDonald' chief executive Paul Pomroy, ditching straws is the next step towards the company’s sustainability goals. Stating, “the reduction in use of plastics is a hugely important issue for business, for the sector, and for society."
“We’ve been on a journey over the past 10 years with recycling, from taking out foam and polystyrene to where we are now – with Big Mac ‘clam’ boxes that are made with recycled board. The only thing left for us to move forward on are the lids that go on to our cups. Those are complicated, but we’re working with our suppliers to find a solution to that.
“We’re really close, so we hope within the next year to be able to have a lid that’s recyclable and serves the same purpose – for hot and cold drinks.”
Let's hope this pilot program makes its way over this side of the pond soon!