McDonald's to Test Changes to Beverage Cups

The shareholder advocacy organization As You Sow has reported that in response to a 2011 shareholder resolution that it filed McDonald's Corp. will begin testing a new paper-based beverage cup to replace its polystyrene cups. A pilot project at 2,000 U.S. restaurants, roughly 15 percent of the company’s U.S. restaurants, primarily on the West Coast, will substitute the cups for double-walled fiber hot cups.
 

Conrad MacKerron, As You Sow senior program director, says, “This is a great first step for McDonald's, and we hope it will lead to a permanent switch to paper cups in all of its restaurants. Given the company's history of using high levels of recycled content in other food packaging, we hope that it follows suit with its cups, and also establishes a robust recycling program for post-consumer waste left in its restaurants.”

 

The objective of this test is to assess customer acceptance, operational impact and overall performance, according to As You Sow. 
 

“Our focus on McDonald's is part of a larger initiative asking all companies that put packaging on the market to take full responsibility for post-consumer collection and recycling through implementation of extended producer responsibility policies,” MacKerron continues. “To accomplish this, companies need to shift to more recyclable materials and to accept financial responsibility for post-consumer collection and recycling.”