McDonald's ditching plastic straws for paper

From next month, the McDonald's restaurants in the Netherlands will give customers paper straws instead of plastic. The fast food chain is also ditching the plastic lids on their McFlurry ice creams, McDonalds announced, AD reports.

According to the fast food chain, this measure will spare 100 million straws and 17 million McFlurry lids on an annual basis. That is 72 thousand kilograms of plastic per year. McDonald's, the largest catering chain in the Netherlands with 254 restaurants, says it is taking responsibility for a cleaner and more sustainable society with this measure.

This is not an altruistic view, McDonald's general manager Erwin Dito said to AD. "Our guests ask for it, but also our own employees. The young generation is critical, during job applications we are often asked what we do about sustainability ourselves."

According to Dito, plastic straws and lids are the first to go because they are most often thrown out and end up in the environment. The intention is also reduce the use of other plastic in the chain, he said. "Our goal is to collect as many kilos of waste as we give out," Dito said, adding that 85 percent of all packaging McDonald's customers received are made from renewable or recycled material.