To think McDonalds are a disgrace with recycing

[Suetully]

I was in McDs yesterday and observing the amount of trays filled with paper, cardboard, plastic cups etc. just thrown in the rubbish with no signs for recycling after they eat.

I know other fast food establishments likely are no better but I say McDs as they are the market leader and would easily have the most consumers. Shouldn't they be changing this, in the light of recent reports, or what are they waiting for?

@CheapFoodShits

McDonald's APPEAR to have recycling sections. However, I saw the cleaner in one by us open the cupboard to reveal just one bin under the recycling and non-recycling sections. She saw me looking and said "Yep, everything goes in the same one 🙄" It's all for show.

This happens a lot because of busybodies like that OP. If recycling was worthwhile, they’d pay us for it.

As it is, most of it goes to the same rubbish bin anyway, so much of it is unusable just makes people feel better I guess

I don't have an agenda. I am happy to hear posts like this. I was saying what I observed yesterday in my local Mc Donalds-just 1 bin.

But it is an agenda. It's always Mcdonalds and how they are not doing X, Y or Z, it's never any other fast food establishment.

A 2 minute Google would have shown what they are doing to help become more sustainable.

You saw a tiny snippet and decided they were a disgrace and not doing anything to minimise their impact on the environment.

Our maccies has had recycling separation for going on 2 years I think. When I went last week they had a member of staff stood taking trays from people and sorting it themselves but in the past they have had a staff member giving guidance on separation of items despite massive clear signs. Interesting that this isn't standard but I'm really impressed with our local!

You saw a tiny snippet and decided they were a disgrace and not doing anything to minimise their impact on the environment

I would not say throwing all the rubbish in 1 bin ,as we were told in this thread, is by any means ''a tiny snippet''. That would mean a lot of paper etc is just thrown out.

Many McDonald’s are franchises, and setups won’t be the same in every store.

All around us have had recycling bins for years.

The recycle chip oil for lorries

They’ve binned plastic straws

They’ve redesigned McFlurry containers to no longer have plastic lids

They’ve ditched plastic happy meal toys.

A lot of their food is sustainably sourced, they buy organic milk which comes from higher welfare farms, less chemicals used etc etc. They don’t even boast about a lot of what’s going on behind the scenes.

It takes a long time to turn a massive boat around, they are genuinely leading the way in fast food tbh, and doing a lot more than a lot of retailers.

I would not say throwing all the rubbish in 1 bin ,as we were told in this thread, is by any means ''a tiny snippet''. That would mean a lot of paper etc is just thrown out.

But it is a tiny snippet. In our local Mcdonalds stores the bins are separate and things are sorted well unless lazy customers cannot be bothered.

Yours appears slightly behind in terms of recycling facilities but that doesn't change the huge amount they do behind the scenes.

No one ever comes on and complains about places like greggs and I'd wager a fuck ton more of their packaging ends up in a general rubbish bin but that's OK because it's not in store so it's out of sight out of mind.

@Suetully

Urgh who really cares

people who care about the environment, that's who.

People who care about the environment probably realise that eating beefburgers isn't really the best choice either - I wonder what has a bigger environmental impact, the production and transport of everything that goes into a big mac, or the waste paper that's wrapped around it going to landfill.

McDonalds are a disgrace.

People who care about the environment probably realise that eating beefburgers isn't really the best choice either

I am vegetarian if you must know and I wasn't eating. My neighbour was having a birthday treat for her daughter and her friends and asked me to accompany them as there were 7 kids aged 6-7 and 1 adult so she wanted another set of adult hands.

Some are franchises and some aren’t. They should all be recycling and as a minimum should have the bins

Is their meat ethical? I doubt their chicken is organic free range, nor their eggs or beef, let alone recycling a bloody cup.

Its all pretty grim

People who care about the environment probably realise that eating beefburgers isn't really the best choice either - I wonder what has a bigger environmental impact, the production and transport of everything that goes into a big mac, or the waste paper that's wrapped around it going to landfill

and I think that's irrelevant, it shouldn't be a point scoring contest but just trying to make changes where we can.

Their packaging is all cardboard. Even the cup lids are that cellulose stuff

Whereas Waitrose still have avocados in polystyrene wrapped in cling film

@Suetully

People who care about the environment probably realise that eating beefburgers isn't really the best choice either - I wonder what has a bigger environmental impact, the production and transport of everything that goes into a big mac, or the waste paper that's wrapped around it going to landfill

and I think that's irrelevant, it shouldn't be a point scoring contest but just trying to make changes where we can.

And McDonalds have made way more changes than most, so your point was?

I can’t get too worked up about card and paper getting chucked. It decomposes

Many stores have the separate bins - as many have said they also have a great deal behind the scenes.

Maybe you should contact your store about getting these recycling bins in store, if its something you feel strongly about. Generally we've found they've had quite good customer service, perhaps you might find they're due to get them soon enough.

I mean...in certain locations, its probably an achievement the rubbish went into a bin let alone a recycling one.

And McDonalds have made way more changes than most, so your point was

my point was that the other poster was calling me out on beef burgers in mcdonalds, which I wasn't anyway but I saying these sort of arguments derail from the point I was making. If you don't get the point go read the thread again xx

Oh dear OP, perhaps it isn't a good idea to jump to conclusions if you don't know anything about the regulations on waste disposal and how they are applied.

Many businesses pay waste management companies to sort their waste and dispose of it in the appropriate manner. DP used to collect the bins of mixed waste from all sorts of food places and it was all sorted with a combination of hand and machine sorting.

Businesses have to pay to get rid of all their rubbish and it simply wouldn't make economic sense to send it all to landfill/incineration. They have to separate out as much recyclable waste as possible and there are crippling charges on waste that isn't recycled.

Oh dear OP, perhaps it isn't a good idea to jump to conclusions if you don't know anything about the regulations on waste disposal and how they are applied

oh dear another poster just told us it was all for show in McDs.

Recycling often ends up in the landfill anyway so it's not a big deal if one "restaurant" (loosely speaking) has recycling segregation and another doesn't. If people care about the environment, what are they doing in McDonald's anyway?

People misunderstand what recycling is. It doesn't give you carte blanche to do what you like, it's only the third best option at best (behind reusing materials and, better still, not using them in the first place). If you care about the planet, don't go into McDonalds in the first place - that way you won't be using the resources at all.

oh dear another poster just told us it was all for show in McDs.

Yes one poster. Many others have told you it's not but clearly you'd rather focus on those who agree with you than think critically and accept you were wrong to tar them with such a negative brush.

If people care about the environment, what are they doing in McDonald's anyway

I already said I was helping supervise a kid's birthday and not eating.

@Suetully

Oh dear OP, perhaps it isn't a good idea to jump to conclusions if you don't know anything about the regulations on waste disposal and how they are applied

oh dear another poster just told us it was all for show in McDs.

But you ignored the one (me) who told you they actually go through it all by hand.

FWIW McDonald's don't employ cleaners specifically, so that post needs taking with a pinch of salt.

Why single out McDonalds? There's endless companies that have a pretty much identical business model and the threads criticising McDs must outnumber all the others combined 100:1.

Why do we never see similar threads about Domino's, Subway or Greggs?

but they aren't recycling it in the restaurants, it all goes in the bin which seems so wasteful

Oh I see, you're expecting each restaurant to run it's own recycling plant to turn the waste cardboard back into new packaging on each individual site?

Notwithstanding the fact that the average machine that recycles cardboard is so large that it barely fits into a supermarket sized building.