Mcdonald's

Environmental Policies at McDonald’s

Environmental Policies at McDonald’s:

McDonald’s has set a very good example of how doing the environmentally right thing can serve the dual purpose of saving the environment and making business profitable. At a time when environmental issues were gaining prominence and public and the Government were both being made aware of the dire consequences that might await us in the near future, McDonald’s was trying to come up with new value proposition for its loyal customers. Being fiercely competitive McDonald’s was trying to offer increased value at reduced cost. As McDonald’s grew and became more and more profitable, it very naturally attracted a lot of unwanted attention and criticism from public interest groups. The environmental policies of the company invited a lot of criticism- one of the issue was waste management. Critics claimed that McDonald’s was responsible for far too much packaging for products and therefore for too much waste accumulation in the community of which 79% is from behind the counter. Critics claimed for better packaging policies that would conserve the natural resources better and for materials that can be recyclable or if disposable then they should be able to degrade completely. McDonald’s made an effort to convince customers that by choosing greener methods they were selling products with more value and they also managed to reduce cost. It worked together with Environmental Defense Fund, an advocacy group, to identify the various ways it can help the environment. Working on EDF’s recommendations McDonald’s replaced their clam-shell polystyrene packing with paper-based wrap. It formed a Solid Waste Task Force and hauled and disposed garbage, spending some $53 million in the process. They studied their packaging life cycle and came up with better environmental policies regarding packaging and focused on recycling with its ‘McRe-cycle’ program. Since the partnership with EDF, McDonald’s has been...