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Saturday, 18 June 2022

(PIN) MESSAGE IN A REUSABLE BOTTLE

Nearly half of McDonald’s shareholders, representing more than US$51 billion in market value, are supporting a Message in a reusable bottle.

As You Sow says McDonald’s is “a cultivator of wasteful ‘to-go’ packaging culture,” with its single-use plastics like cold beverage cups, condiment packets, and utensils contributing heavily to “ocean-bound” plastics.

Reusables will play a significant role if McDonald’s is to pursue a circular economy while minimizing its plastic use, argues Mcbee.

“A circular economy minimizes natural resource use extraction, designs out waste, and seeks to preclude regrettable substitutes – whereby the harm associated with one material is replaced by a new harm from a different material, as would happen if McDonald’s were to merely substitute materials – such as paper for plastic – rather than focusing on designing out disposability,” she explains. requesting that the company establish concrete actions to combat plastic pollution. 

As You Sow, the shareholder advocacy non-profit that filed the resolution, says reusable packaging systems will play a significant role if the fast-food giant is to minimize its environmental impact.

More than 206 million shares (41.9% of ownership) support the proposal. McDonald’s lags behind its corporate peers, receiving a “D-” grade in As You Sow’s Corporate Plastic Pollution Scorecard, ranking 50th in a list of the largest FMCGs on actions to prevent plastic packaging pollution.

“This high vote sends the message that McDonald’s must do much more to address the plastic pollution crisis. In response to its shareholders, we expect the company to set new goals to reduce plastic pollution, such as a commitment to use less plastic overall,” Kelly McBee, waste program coordinator at As You Sow, tells PackagingInsights.

“As the proponent of the resolution, it would be customary for McDonald’s to contact As You Sow and begin a dialogue about next steps.”

“The company should have a public statement or plan for reducing its plastic use by the end of this year; without this, the company would be seen as unresponsive to its shareholders and likely subject to another resolution filing in 2023, with likely increased public, shareholder, and media attention.”

Pew Research Center’s “Breaking the Plastic Wave” report calls on corporations to cut plastic use by one-third through elimination, reuse, refill, and new delivery systems. However, McDonald’s currently has no goal to reduce its overall use of plastic packaging.

Message in a reusable bottle

As You Sow says McDonald’s is “a cultivator of wasteful ‘to-go’ packaging culture,” with its single-use plastics like cold beverage cups, condiment packets, and utensils contributing heavily to “ocean-bound” plastics.

Reusables will play a significant role if McDonald’s is to pursue a circular economy while minimizing its plastic use, argues Mcbee.

“A circular economy minimizes natural resource use extraction, designs out waste, and seeks to preclude regrettable substitutes – whereby the harm associated with one material is replaced by a new harm from a different material, as would happen if McDonald’s were to merely substitute materials – such as paper for plastic – rather than focusing on designing out disposability,” she explains. (the brilliant) Packaging Insights - link - Joshua Poole - link - more like this (packaging) - link - more like this (USA) - link

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