McDonald’s Canada renews commitment to make 100% of their customer packaging from recycled sources
by CM Staff
McDonald's Canada reports that it will source 100% of McDonald's primary guest packaging* from renewable, recycled or certified sources by the end of 2025.
McDonald’s Canada is trying to create an impact in the communities where it operates. (CNW Group/McDonald’s Canada)
TORONTO — As part of McDonald’s Canada’s ambitions to help feed and foster communities, the company is making some changes behind the scenes across the country with the planet in mind. McDonald’s Canada reports that it will source 100% of McDonald’s primary guest packaging* from renewable, recycled or certified sources by the end of 2025 and it is part of the McDonald’s global pledge to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
“We recognize we have an important opportunity to help serve up a better tomorrow, and the actions we’re working on today are an investment in our future,” Michèle Boudria, President and CEO, McDonald’s Canada. “When you live and operate in almost every Canadian community, serving more than a million guests every day, every single change – big and small – can have a noticeable impact.”
Here are some of the steps McDonald’s has taken so far:
- In 2019, McDonald’s Canada eliminated more than 1,300 tonnes of paper from the Canadian system annually by introducing new McWrap® packaging, and 20% smaller, 100% recycled fibre napkins.
- Also in 2019, the brand stopped using extruded polystyrene foam from gravy bowls and breakfast platters.
- In mid-July 2022, McDonald’s Canada re-introduced its Reusable Travel Mug policy, encouraging guests in Canada to bring their own clean, reusable travel mugs for use with their hot McCafé Premium Roast Coffee and Tea orders made at the Front Counter.
- In May of 2022, McDonald’s Canada, together with other brands, joined a six-month pilot program called ‘Return-It to Reuse It and Recycle It’, managed by Encorp Pacific, better known as Return-It. This pilot is dual-focused, aiming to keep more single-use cups out of landfills by giving consumers a convenient place to recycle them as well as introducing a reusable cup program, with consumers signing-up to use reusable cups that will be washed and returned to retail locations. McDonald’s Canada is actively participating in the single-use cups reduction part of the pilot will be exploring the reusable cup part of their partnership with Return-It in the future. Both the single-use cups and the reusable cup program will be facilitated via the use of specialized collection bins, which are made from recycled plastics and have been made available in commercial as well as on-street locations.
McDonald’s Canada also says in the future that it will be:
- Working towards its global ambition to drastically reduce the virgin fossil fuel-based plastics used in Happy Meal toys and offer Happy Meal toys made from more renewable, recycled, or certified materials by the end of 2025.
