Mcdonald's Is Urged To Cut The Wrap
The Age
Thursday April 23, 1998
Rubbish generated by fast food packaging is under scrutiny after a decision by a city council to get McDonald's to offer reusable crockery and cutlery.
The move by the City of Newcastle, New South Wales, dubbed the McPlate campaign, has angered McDonald's, which described it as unacceptable and unworkable. The plan is expected to put pressure on other fast food companies.
Environmental groups say about 30 per cent of litter in Australian cities is from take-away foods and the proportion is growing.
Newcastle's Lord Mayor, Councillor Greg Heys, said the council had decided to impose the condition on McDonald's in return for redevelopment approval for a restaurant in suburban Mayfield.
He said that as part of a plan to reduce rubbish going into the city's landfill sites, the restaurant would be barred from offering disposable food containers and utensils to customers eating in the establishment.
While McDonald's would only issue a statement on the council's decision, national marketing manager for the rival Hungry Jack's hamburger chain, Mr Jim Wilson, said about 70 per cent of his company's business was take-away and he believed it would be about the same for McDonald's.
"We offer take-away packaging, because that is what most customers want. About 50 per cent of our customers are drive-through, another 20 per cent buy take-aways over the counter."
He said that a change to using re-usable eating utensils would involve redesigning the company's operating system and its restaurant's burger rooms. Extra staff would have to be hired and washing facilities installed.
Mr Wilson did not know what impact this would have on business costs because he did not believe anyone had done the sums.
The Newcastle Greens councillor who sponsored the move, Mr John Sutton, said a number of McDonald's restaurants in Germany had already been compelled to introduce non-disposable utensils.
"I decided on this when I got involved in cleaning up a local creek and found how much of the rubbish had the golden arches on it. McDonald's is not happy, they made a submission to the council last night. They're spitting french fries."
A spokeswoman for the public relations company handling the issue for McDonald's would not elaborate on why the company was so strongly opposed to using non-disposable utensils.
She said McDonald's' environmental practices included: smaller napkins, shorter drinking straws, a change from plastic foam clamshells to paper, and a 10 year sponsorship of Clean Up Australia Day.
© 1998 The Age
