The McDonald’s restaurants in Australia will be replacing plastic cutlery with wooden utensils.
The fast-food chain announced this change at the plastic summit which recently took place in Australia.
By the end of this year, the plastic cutlery in the 900 McDonald’s restaurants in Australia will be removed.
This decision comes after a 2018 goal to reduce plastic straws in countries worldwide and use alternative and more eco-friendly options that will help lower the 500 million straws ending up in landfills yearly.
Australian McDonald’s Will no Longer Have Plastic Cutlery
However, it’s not known if the corporation has plans to implement this change outside of Australia.
The federal government is called on to make a law that 100 percent of the plastic packaging has to be compostable, reusable or recyclable by 2025.
The Australian McDonald’s supply chain and sustainability director Kylie Freeland claims that they’re dedicated to become leaders in the sustainable practices and ultimately, use their scale for a positive influence and change in the communities where they operate.
He further added that through the removal of plastic cutlery and straws from McDonald’s, they’re continuing the reduction of their footprint and will be eliminating more than 860 tons of plastic from the system.
The 3-Month Trial on Wooden Utensils
The corporation has already done a 3-month trial on the wooden utensils in 9 restaurants in New Zealand in late 2019.
Historically, they’ve also eliminated plastic lids from their McFlurry cups and have replaced the salad bows and sundae cups with fiber alternatives.
What about Other Food Corporations?
Other big food corporations like Nestle are also announcing their methods of plastic waste reduction.
They plan on collecting biscuit packets and bread bags from more than 100,000 houses.
According to the Australian Nestle chief executive, Sandra Martinez, they’re well aware that soft plastic requires bigger focus and collaboration.
They’re dedicated to finding ways to better and increase the recycling and local governments are also calling on the government to do more in terms of waste reduction.
NSW president Linda Scott said that the government has to prohibit single-use plastic bags and reinvest the waste levy into council recycling facilities.
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