Starting next year, customers in the UK could see their favorite McDonald’s coffee or tea in a reusable cup. On Wednesday, the fast-food giant announced its plans of testing out reusable cups. The move will affect several UK restaurants. The effort is an attempt to reduce the company’s generation of single-use plastics.
McDonald’s Green Effort
Once implemented, customers can opt to get a reusable mug for a small deposit, the price to be determined. They can take the cup with them outside the store or not; it depends on them.
McDonald's will test out reusable cups in the United Kingdom next year in an effort to address the environmental toll of disposable cups and appeal to customers who are increasingly concerned with wasteful single-use packaging https://t.co/BwWQbSy9s5
— CNN Business (@CNNBusiness) September 10, 2020
After they finish their drink, customers can then return the chosen cup in participating locations. Of course, you can redeem the deposit you paid earlier.
Afterward, the cup enters a cleaning and washing stage through a system before another customer uses it again. Rather than a regular cup being thrown away, it returns in the economy. Thereby, it minimizes generated waste,
It is Easy in the Loop
For this initiative, the fast-food behemoth worked with the recycling firm TerraCycle’s Loop. In the foodservice segment, McDonald’s is the first to partner with Loop. Basically, Loop is a shopping service business where you can order several items like detergent soap packed in reusable containers.
Therefore, if you preferred to take out with a reusable cup, you can, And if you want to return the mug, you don’t necessarily have to return to where you got the drink. You only have to find a Loop site.
“So, you get that sort of to-go experience fulfilled,” Loop chief Tom Szaky reckoned. “And you don’t have to deal with anything other than depositing it back in the Loop ecosystem.”
‘Keep Waste Out of Nature’
According to McDonald’s VP for Global Sustainability, Jenny McColloch, “reuse” will serve as a crucial tool for the company. It is necessary as McDonald’s explore ways “to keep waste out of nature.”
Furthermore, McColloch said that the UK pilot would serve as a trial for the company. The company will see how the reusable model could work for their system, McColloch said.
