McDonald's: Over 20 billion served...then trashed?
Filed under: Entrepreneurship, Food, Reduce Reuse Recycle
Keep Britain Tidy, a British anti-trash campaign run by a prominent environmental group, just released a survey of the garbage it found strewn all over 10 of England's city streets, including London. Its headliner finding: McDonald's accounts for 29% of the fast-food trash left across the country. In the city of Birmingham, as much as 41% of the chain-store litter came from McDonald's. Other corporate culprits perpetually inhabiting the gutter included KFC (fourth place) and Subway (fifth place).
Keep Britain Tidy is trying to use the findings to force the big fast-food chains to be more active in keeping their customers from littering in the first place. I'm not really sure how they're going to do that short of asking customers to bring their own plates.
But the group has floated some early ideas, including giving a discount to people who eat their food at the restaurant or giving small money-back vouchers to people who bring back their used cups, containers, and wrappers for recycling, the way some states' bottle deposits work.While there are some logistics to be worked out -- it's not always easy to process paper that has been covered in food -- a change would not be without precedent. Plenty of offshore restaurants already charge different prices for customers who eat to-go instead of on site, although up to now it has usually cost less money to take food away.
In the past, the fast-food giants have made packaging tweaks as a nod to our environment. Twenty years ago, most McDonald's hamburger stacks came in polystyrene clam-shells that left much to be desired in terms of landfill waste, given that they take 900 years to break down. In the U.S., those have been replaced with cardboard boxes (which break down in about a year), but since McDonald's estimates the number of Big Macs sold annually at 550 million (or 17 every second), even changes like that generate mountains of refuse.
There's no reason to assume the litter findings would be much different here in the United States. With more of us likely to eat cheap junk food instead of paying for more expensive stuff, littering is only likely to increase, and as cities slash budgets, sanitation rounds are only likely to get less frequent. So perhaps Keep Britain Tidy is on to something and it's a smart time to start looking at charging customers different prices for differing uses of an establishment's resources.
Maybe we should start by charging premium prices at the drive-through window. You can bet that most of the hamburger wrappers and shake cups littering the side of the highway were purchased by someone using the drive-through, and not by walk-in customers, who are more likely to throw them away before leaving. Convenience has its price, after all, and I'd love to get a discount for using an honest-to-goodness garbage can instead of making my fry bag someone else's problem.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 11)
1-19-2009 @ 6:25AM
Paul said...
People account for the trash, lazi, irresponsible people. I believe that most of the "fast food" companies have responded to demands that they reduce packaging as much as possible. Changes from stryofoam to paper, recycled mapkins and bags, etc. There is no excuse for tossing your meal wrappings out the car window on the way to your next destination. But, you see it all the time. We have a nuce shopping center across from our park, there is a very nice coffee house and a McDonald's incorperated there as well as a couple of other eateries. The park is littered with the coffee cups from the $3.00 and up a cup coffee house more than the eateries. It's not just kids, it's adults. Start enforcing strict litter laws with mandatory public service to clean up America. Not just a couple of hours either. Hand out terms of a day a week for twelve weeks. I believe it will ork very well.
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1-19-2009 @ 6:34AM
Terry said...
You're blaming McDonalds? I don't think McD is throwing trash in your streets. Pathetic!
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1-19-2009 @ 11:27AM
Lee said...
It's the slob people that dirty our highways.People that use drive thrus and don't use a trash bag in their car.
1-19-2009 @ 12:17PM
sweetjuliek said...
All the more reason to watch what you eat!.. Best way to do that is to cook for yourself! I found this hilarious cookbook called "Get in the Kitchen, BIT@HES!" (bitchcooks.com)- It has made cooking fun again!
1-19-2009 @ 6:47AM
Mary Ellen said...
I think all the fast food chains should have a small fee for carry-out. I've been to some non-fast food restuarants that have different pricing for carry out then they do for dine in.
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1-19-2009 @ 12:18PM
basketpam said...
Sure, you want to raise the price on everyone to pay for the poor behavior of a few individuals. Everything is costing us too much as it is now in this world, the last thing we need is one more fee or tax added onto something to pay for some idiots that are too lazy to put something into a trash can. That's what it boils down to, laziness. And I'll bet you money that the people doing this are mostly teens and young adults that were allowed to be slobs by their parents in their own homes and had someone pick up after them all the time. This is what comes from over indulging a child.
1-19-2009 @ 2:56PM
youth are not all bad said...
the idea that everyone should pay a huge corporation "a little" more for their product because some people are slobs dosen't address the problem. Do you think McDonalds or any other corporation isn't going to stuff that money into their bank account and keep it? Of course they will keep the money and everyone will still have to deal with the litter and we just gave that company extra money for nothing. I don't have lots of extra money to throw around for nothing. Before someone says something no I don't litter and yes I am young.
1-19-2009 @ 3:33PM
George said...
That's very true. McDonald's should account for most of the garbage in MOST countries. They sell the most food at any given time--anywhere in the world. But, should they be responsible for littering the streets? That is a question for society itself!! We as a society have to learn to have pride in our own "home". I've been to Singapore and the government "encourages" everyone to take pride in "keeping the country clean"--or YOU WILL be fined. Try throwing a cigarette butt on the street--just don't get caught. As far as charging a premium for "to-go" orders, why would any company that's pulling in a staggering 65 to 70 percent drive-thru orders do something as silly as discouraging as that?
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1-19-2009 @ 7:02AM
celeste said...
I always just see it as-the type of person who would actually eat in a McDonald's,or really any other type of fast food place,probably doesn't have much care or respect for themselves.It explains why there are so often fast food garbage everyone. If you don't have any respect for yourself,it's really hard to have respect for anyone or anything else.This also goes for the environment and keeping where you live looking nice.
Even as a child,I could never litter. I tried a few times,when I was really young,wanting to "feel cool"(all the older kids didn't care and threw their garbage everywhere),but I couldn't even then. I guess my parents taught me too well. They taught me to be respectful of everyone,to say please,may I and thank you.I must be from the last generation who was taught proper manners,because people younger than me are just disgusting.
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1-19-2009 @ 8:58AM
John said...
I agree Celeste. Littering indicates a lack of self respect.
1-19-2009 @ 10:53AM
Elaine said...
It isn't a lack of self respect that causes people to litter. It is people who care only about themselves who litter and do much of what else is wrong in the world. It is a condition taught by the parents and it is not related to where they eat. McDonald's or Red Lobster? I see just as much trash.
1-19-2009 @ 11:12AM
valerie said...
i agree with you about people not having respect for thrmselves if they litter , but i cant agree with your statement that people have no selfrespect for eating at these fast food establishment. i have 2 kids that love to go to macdonalds and finance wise my husband works 2 jobs so it is a treat for them to go to macdonalds because in todays economy it is very hard for us to go to a good restaurant and pay 50 dollars for a meal for 4 when we can take them to macdonalds for half that we have self respect but we also live on a very tight budget
1-19-2009 @ 11:46AM
Matthew said...
celesta I don't think you should blame it on all people who eat fast food! I myself eat alot of fast food and i have respect for myself. I also have respect for everyone and everything else!!!!! I mean really.As a kid I was not like you, I never even tried. I'm like the perfect person. so why should anyone bother to pay more. Personally, I think you are impolite to think you should blame it on every person who eats fast food.
1-19-2009 @ 11:47AM
Christi said...
I don't litter, my kids don't litter. But to say that we have no self respect because we at Mc Donalds is pretty judgemental on your part. I am with the other poster. We live on a budget too, and can't afford to take our family of seven out to eat. So something like that is a treat.
Also, not right to charge every person who eats to go extra because some litter. I like the idea about getting a coupon or something for bringing your cups back.
1-19-2009 @ 12:14PM
pgrip said...
raising the fees wouldn't change anything. why would anyone keep garbage just because they 'paid' too much...really?
1-19-2009 @ 12:25PM
basketpam said...
I don't think it's correct or a very fair thing to say "the type of people" who eat fast food are the type who litter. I personally resent that statement. I don't eat fast food very often any more in my life but I have NEVER littered and I see many many people at fast food places that place their trash in the trash cans when leaving or eating. What it boils down to is laziness. The type of person who throws their trash out the car window is usually the spoiled brat teenager or young adult who has been indulged and pampered by parents who don't enforce any disclipine at home. These people live like slobs at home so of course they also live like this out in public. Like you I was raised never to litter. It was doing my youth when the Keep America Beautiful campaigns were started all over America by Lady Bird Johnson. So if the public wants to look for their litterbugs, look to the same group of people who have no manners, respect or courtesy any other time out in society, why would they when eating a hamburger or fries at a fast food restaurant.
1-19-2009 @ 12:35PM
Phyllis said...
Good for you Celeste! You spoke "true" words. I am glad you wrote about people having being raised correctly. I thank my parents for giving me good structure. Pat on the back for you Celeste.
1-19-2009 @ 1:53PM
Bob Rose said...
There must be an epidemic of low self respectif "all the older kids" were littering. No, I'm sure that it's possible to have plenty of "self respect" and not care about other issues like the environment. It is called being self-centered or selfish. In the US, we've raised at least a couple generations this way. You see it in the collapse of polite society, road rage, and greed that pervades our society today. Many people feel it's OK to throw trash out the car window because local governments have crews to pick it up not at all realizing that those crews are reaction to their wasteful ways, not preparation for them. It's all about "I". I'm done with it; I don't have any place to put it; I want to get rid of it NOW! Trash cans are too inconvient.
1-19-2009 @ 6:36PM
Ryan said...
I know that you are not talking about MANNERS when you are making PRETENTIOUS and JUDGMENTAL remarks about people that you don't even know.
Does being taught manners also mean being taught to refere to others as "THE TYPE OF PERSON THAT WOULD EAT AT MCDONALDS?" You should be ashamed of yourself for making such an IGNORANT BLANKET STATEMENT. You are PATHETIC.
You might not be aware of it, but YOU ARE NOT ANY BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE, and what you choose to eat, especially, does not make you any better.
Your shit stinks just like anyone else's.
1-19-2009 @ 7:31AM
Bsrbsrs said...
If all fast food companies, not just McDonalds,McDonalds were required, all over the world, to pay a recovery fee for all the trash collected in their names, I'll bet they would soon find ways to reduce the litter.
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