New controversy surrounds the way McDonald's packages the Big Mac and potatoes

Since the 1980s, the McDonalds has been facing pressure from environmental groups to adopt more sustainable practices in relation to the packaging of its products. In 1990, the company abandoned the use of Styrofoam for the Big Mac and switched to wrapped paper.

Since then, McDonald's has been making progress towards its goal to use recycled or renewable packaging in all its restaurants by the end of 2025. However, activist shareholders are now pushing the company to take even more ambitious measures, such as adopting reusable packaging.

One of the measures proposed by the shareholders was the production of a report on the implications of the change to reusable packaging, a proposal accepted by McDonald's in exchange for the withdrawal of proposal. However, the company has not yet announced concrete plans for the adoption of reusable packaging.

But then, why does McDonald's continue with these obstacles?

Although McDonald's has made some significant changes to its packaging in recent years, such as completely eliminating styrofoam in all of its global markets, most of the shifts toward more sustainable packaging have taken place outside of the United States United.

In Europe, for example, the European Commission has banned certain single-use packaging and required that all packaging in these categories be designed for reuse from July 2021. And in late 2020, McDonald’s France launched reusable plastic food packaging in its signature red color.

Is McDonald's ready to take the next step towards more sustainable packaging? Activist shareholders certainly hope so. The company still has a few years to go before its renewable packaging target date, and it could be that embracing reusable packaging is key to achieving that goal.

It is therefore concluded that McDonald’s has been charged for sustainable measures for decades, but only in 2018 did it eliminate the use of Styrofoam in its global markets.

Pressure for more sustainable measures, such as the adoption of reusable packaging, has been increasingly strong on the part of shareholders and society in general and itself, has already been committed to environmental goals, but there is still room to advance in sustainable practices and impact reduction environmental