Leaders Serve Up New Packaging – Corporations & Stakeholders, Apr. 2012

kristyReforming Global Finance

Leaders Serve Up New Packaging

Image: Biodegradable Packaging

by Juliette Terzieff, Senior Director, Global Stakeholder Initiative, Labor & Transparency Programs

McDonald’s removed polystyrene-based clamshell food containers from its restaurants 20 years ago because of the impacts the petroleum-based containers had on the environment?”packaging that persists in the environment for hundreds of years after use.” Despite being a member of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, the fast food giant continued using the polystyrene hot beverage containers. With the urging of leading SRI As You Sow, the restaurant chain recently launched a new pilot program to remove polystyrene coffee cups from its restaurants. The pilot program will test double-walled paper cups at approximately 2,000 of its restaurants in the US, primarily on the West Coast,” which account for approximately 15 percent of McDonald’s stores in the US.

A decade after McDonald’s removed the polystyrene-based food containers from its restaurants, the company reported the elimination of ?more than 300 million pounds of packaging and reduced restaurant waste by 30 percent, saving an estimated $6 million per year.” McDonald’s has also invested heavily in the purchase of recycled paper for use in food containers, bags, and napkins.

When As You Sow approached McDonald’s shareholders with its 2011 Shareholder Resolution, the “proposal received the support of nearly 30 percent of the total company shares voted, the highest vote to date for any As You Sow recycling proposal.?

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