McDonald’s is a fast food chain with packaging that is almost as iconic as its menu items. When I think of McDonald’s, I picture cardboard Happy Meals, plastic straws lined with a red and yellow stripe, and beverage lids with four little buttons to push down. The items feel so integral to McDonald's brand that my jaw dropped in the streets of Utrecht, NE this summer when I saw a Dutch poster promoting the company's new “deposit cup.”
Sign in Utrecht, Netherlands of deposit cup (left), screenshot from QR code from sign of English translation (right).
The deposit cup option allows customers to purchase a single-use beverage cup for an additional €0.10, or they can pay for a reusable, deposit cup for €1.00 and receive that euro back when they return their cup. With the opportunity to save some change, McDonald's is providing its customers with an incentive to choose the more eco-friendly option.
Amsterdam isn’t the only place that McDonalds’ packaging received a makeover this year. In Germany, McDonald’s eliminated straws and plastic lids completely – switching them out for paper lids with sipping spouts. In France, the fast-food chain rolled out new reusable containers that get washed and reused, just as dining ware would at a standard sit-down restaurant.
German McDonald’s cups (left) photo from Merkur.de , French McDonald’s packaging (right) photo from Juan Buis on Twitter.
As I stood in Utrecht marveling at this incredible deposit cup poster, I wondered, why do these sustainable design choices feel like they would be impossible to see in the United States? To find the answer, I dug into learning why select McDonald’s locations implemented these changes in the first place.
On July 3, 2023, the European Union implemented the Directive on Single-Use Plastics, which banned the distribution of common, single-use, plastic products that had sustainable alternatives. This includes single-use items like straws, stirring sticks, food containers, cups, lids, cutlery, and cotton bud sticks. The EU holds all of its member states accountable to carry out the directive with mandatory reports that the countries are required to submit. If any members fail to comply with the ruling, the EU will give them a two-month warning to implement last minute changes before it starts to impose sanctions.
In addition, the Directive on Single-Use Plastics holds plastic producers accountable for cleaning up the litter their products produce by charging them an additional fee for these items. So if you go into any of these McDonald’s locations and order dipping sauce on the side, you’ll now have to pay an additional fee (€0.05 in the Netherlands) for the dipping sauce's cup .
Now at about five months in, the EU’s Directive on Single-Use Plastics exhibits that when companies face a bit of legislative pressure, they can find ways to make “radical changes” happen like the flip of a switch. We need to see this mindset at a global scale.
So if the EU’s Directive is effective at reducing single-use plastics, how can we replicate these types of changes in the US?
To start, we need to acknowledge that some areas of the United States are already making headway on banning single-use plastics.
In California, restaurants are not to give out plastic straws or utensils unless the customer specifically requests them. Seattle has banned companies from giving out plastic straws completely. States like Colorado charge extra at grocery stores if you need a plastic bag. These are all efforts that we need to celebrate, promote, and encourage other states to hop on the bandwagon!
We also need to applaud those companies in the US that are already making sustainability changes like Starbucks, who did away with single-use straws through the introduction of new lids for cold drinks.
Starbucks cups with new lids, image from Hip2Save.
Though it may be a while before the United States replicates such a strict ban on single-use plastics, here are some tips for you to help drive change now:
1. When you go to a restaurant, tell them you don’t need a straw with your order – you can always just take off the lid and treat it like a normal cup.
2. When you do have single-use items, make sure to recycle them!
3. Learn what is and is not recyclable in your area. For example, you cannot recycle plastic straws or black, plastic cutlery because you’ll contaminate the entire recycling bin. Consider investing in a bamboo travel cutlery and straw kit like this one.
4. Vote for green legislation! If you want to see environmental changes, let the voting offices or petitions by non-profits like GreenPeace know!
5. Educate yourself! Some great additional resources about single-use plastics include:
The Albatross documentary by Chris Jordan, which captures how our single-use plastics are impacting marine life. Check out this synopsis by the Guardian here.
To learn more about how France’s McDonalds’ locations rolled out the new product updates, watch this video.
Partake in a Zero Single-Use Plastic Challenge! Lucy Biggers from NowThisEarth did a 30-day challenge that you can watch here.
Have any other great educational resources you want to share with the community? Comment below!
Photo featured in Albatross the Film by Chris Jordan, showing an albatross full of single-use plastics.
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