MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Just had a cheeky breakfast and noted, tommy k still in plastic, lid to tea still plastic, straws still plastic. I would gave thought given the resources and buying power that tbey have they would have removed nigh on all single use plastic by now. Do they just not gaf?
They do.
Almost all the food comes in paper boxes; ketchup is mostly in paper cups, all drinks in paper (ok so it's not recyclable but paper is a renewable resource), straws are paper in our place, delivery trucks run on waste oil (if their advertising is to be believed).
I've used a couple of different McDs recently and both had paper straws. Maybe the one you used is still running down stocks? Plastic tubs of sauce still being handed out though as you say, but at the same time to paper tubs setup is also in place. Plastic lid I can imagine might be tricky, not sure I've seen an alternative?
TBH, I don't think McDs are the bad guys when it comes to this sort of thing.
Sausage and Egg McMuffins with cheese could be wrapped in plastic made form the eyeballls of baby chimps for all I care, I would still monster one down and enjoy every single calorie in the process. Mmmmmmnonmnomnom
lid to tea still plastic
What would you make it out of? It has to seal fairly tightly so it doesn't come off and dump a load of hot drink onto someone's lap. If you're eating in the store, the waste will be sorted and recycled as much as possible. If you're driving to the store, the petrol you burn will be massively more wasteful than the tiny amount of plastic in the lid of a cup.
My local coffee shop uses Vegware lids made from plant-based CPLA
https://www.vegware.com/pla-hot-cup-extras/cat_7.html
Maybe the one you used is still running down stocks?
Makes sense, it'd be far less eco-friendly to just throw it all away.
If you're worried about the environment, not eating McD's would be better than eating McD's with conscience-salving paper wrappers.
All you really need to do is dispose of the packaging out of the car window like a lot of folk.
Someone else will pick it up won’t they.
🤷♂️
My local coffee shop uses Vegware lids made from plant-based CPLA
Our hot cup lids are made from plant-based CPLA, which is 67% lower in carbon than plastic. They're heat resistant up to 85°C, with a tight fit and sleek design.
AFAIK, 90 degrees C is the standard temperature for brewing coffee. No idea what McD's standard for serving it is, but I suspect corporate lawyers would not sign off on a lid that is only certified for 85 degrees if the coffee was brewed at a higher temperature.
I really, really fancy a sausage and egg McMuffin now.
If someone I could only have one if I emptied a supertanker full of crude oil into a nature reserve then machine gun some kittens, I'd happily do it
The fact that nobody has mentioned a double sausage and egg mcmuffin is making me wonder if I need to look at some of my life choices......
if they (or anyone!) are serving coffee at 90 degrees a slightly melty lid is gonna be the least of their lawsuit worries 😂😂😂No idea what McD’s standard for serving it is
In a sad work way I was at the packaging show at the NEC last month, was quite an eye opener really, on one side we had all the new packing materials and biodegradable stuff along with the plastic is evil, on the other PLASTIC PLASTIC PLASTIC everythings!!
It's truly a massive industry with plenty of people still working on the 0.1p/item saving before any environmental concern gets a look in.
The good news is though that there are lots of new products coming to market to try and make things a lot better.
The fact that nobody has mentioned a double sausage and egg mcmuffin is making me wonder if I need to look at some of my life choices……
I just take it as read that its a double. Has anyone ever bought a single one? If so, they need to take a long, hard look at themselves
All take away packaging should be degradable.
AFAIK, 90 degrees C is the standard temperature for brewing coffee. No idea what McD’s standard for serving it is, but I suspect corporate lawyers would not sign off on a lid that is only certified for 85 degrees if the coffee was brewed at a higher temperature.
It'll be lower now, they were famously sued in the US when one of their customers put a cup between her legs so she could drive and got terrible burns when it spilt.
Has anyone ever bought a single one? If so, they need to take a long, hard look at themselves
Acceptable when you get 2 x Single meals, so you can double up on the hash-browns and get a coffee and a OJ.
RM*.
* - not Ronald McDonald.
if they (or anyone!) are serving coffee at 90 degrees a slightly melty lid is gonna be the least of their lawsuit worries
I had a cup of coffee in a place in Korea (Lotteria, maybe), that burned my lips and tongue. Holy crap it was hot, tasted vile too, my guess is that it was brewed with boiling water. Thing is that lawyers will always take the cautious route and if the coffee is brewed at 90 degrees, they may insist that the lids be able to withstand that temperature just in case it gets served at that temperature by mistake even if it is normally served at 70 degrees or something.
Well this is now getting interesting (unlike all that environmental stuff. Who needs an "environment" anyway??).
Doubling up on single meals would allow a hash brown sandwich to come into play.....
The fact that nobody has mentioned a double sausage and egg mcmuffin is making me wonder if I need to look at some of my life choices……
you do, when you go to the self service machines now you can add extra bacon and sauasge! triple sausage and bacon egg mcmuffin for the win!
What they could do is get rid of the shit plastic toys that come with Happy Meals, 90% of them will be in the bin by the end of the week.
Hash brown is in the breakfast wrap, but it's a wrap not a muffin.
As for my green credentials stopping the odd nice breakfast is not going to happen, and yes i did drive there, in a nasty chokey diesel of all things.
The op was just musings about plastic nothing more or less.
My plastic waste wheelie bin is a challenge to compact every month, which is sad. We eat a lot of soft fruit, the amount of packaging involved is ridiculous.
My local one has been on paper straws for around 2 months now, I guess they're rolling them out.
they were famously sued in the US when one of their customers put a cup between her legs so she could drive and got terrible burns when it spilt
A burnt McMuffin? I'm loving it.
If only they would take the plastic out of the 'food' 😀
What sort of pervert would choose a single sausage McMuffin? That sickens me.
#prayforSingleMcMuffinWierdos
Tasteless muck.
Just had a cheeky breakfast and noted, tommy k still in plastic, lid to tea still plastic, straws still plastic. I would gave thought given the resources and buying power that tbey have they would have removed nigh on all single use plastic by now. Do they just not gaf?
Plastic isn't necessarily evil, and it certainly isn't necessarily more evil than other alternatives which (by being plastic free might present themselves as better). https://www.hw.ac.uk/about/news/2018/a-plastic-ban-could-increase-damage-to.htm . If you don't want plastics in the oceans it may be better to make sure that waste doesn't end up in our oceans rather than deciding that substituting plastic for material that has other downsides.
Even assuming there are great alternatives available:
1. Are McD in long term contracts with their suppliers - almost certainly
2. Are the alternative product/suppliers able to deliver the scale up necessary for McD volumes?
3. If you were going to change your packaging suppliers would you do all of them at once or use a phased approach? Would you pilot it first?
4. If you have stock in store, or in warehouses you'd want to use that up first. Some McDs are actually franchises so will be less easily controlled.
A very apt username.... 🙂
One sausage and egg muffin?
Bloody amateurs.....
This year's one and only hangover was only solved by four of the lovely little things.
The doubles are an abomination - ruins the ratio of sausage to egg.
Getting rid of single use plastic for mcdonalds is impossible.
Normal cheese would be weird.
Just had a cheeky breakfast
AAMOI, what makes a breakfast "cheeky"? In what way does it differ from a non-cheeky (respectful?) breakfast?
Nobeerinthefridge
Subscriber
Tasteless muck.
to be fair to McDonalds, you’re not really meant to eat the plastic
Would probably taste better.
Have you ever actually had a double sausage and egg McMuffin, fella? Washed down with a pint of full fat coke? Tis a thing of joy and wonder. Nothing on gods earth can shift a hangover faster than that.
I remember being introduced to them on the way to an early meeting with a client after we'd ill-advisedly spent all evening in the pub the night before. It was a revelation 😀
Yes, it left a taste in my mouth akin to the smell of summit you'd clean the scaffolders block toilet with!.
You'd clearly not had enough to drink the previous evening 😉
All take away packaging should be degradable
Well, Starbucks have changed the ingredients for their takeaway cups. I discovered this after leaving 1/4 cup in my car and returning 5 days later to find an empty cup floating on top of a cup holder full of stagnant coffee.
Yes, it left a taste in my mouth akin to the smell of summit you’d clean the scaffolders block toilet with!.
You clean toliets with sausage meat?
Tasteless muck.
It is not tasteless. It tastes like fried salt.
You clean toliets with sausage meat?
Unfortunately..... it’s a curse. 😉
If only I was taller.
You clean toliets with sausage meat?
You accuse McDonalds of using sausage meat (not including @perchypanther's interpretation)?
Well, Starbucks have changed the ingredients for their takeaway cups.
They've been working alongside McD's to develop them.
Unfortunately….. it’s a curse.
If only I was taller.
I knew I could rely on you.
I knew I could rely on you.
Nob gags are my catnip
A very apt username….
Less of a coincidence than you think!
I read the other day that coca cola use the equivilent weight of 15000 blue Whales in plastic..every year.
Back on on topic..breakfast wraps...mmm
As someone says further up the thread, the “happy meal” is the worse abuse of plastic. It really is single use in the worst sense in that it has no real use other than to drag children in to the store and make fast food a treat. Hate them on all counts.
As someone says further up the thread, the “happy meal” is the worse abuse of plastic. It really is single use in the worst sense in that it has no real use other than to drag children in to the store and make fast food a treat. Hate them on all counts.
& I thought I was the only one!
mcd's really should at least try to educate the trampish customers of theirs who chuck the packaging out of cars in seemingly the most remote parts of the countyrside. I'm sure some of the scruffy bastards just see how far away they can get from an outlet before disposing of the bags/cups/ wrapping. Nearly everytime I go out on the bike into the middle of nowhere, I see it.
I remember when Burger King (OK not technically a Happy Meal but same difference) gave away Micro Machines in Kids Club meals. What happened?
AFAIK, 90 degrees C is the standard temperature for brewing coffee. No idea what McD’s standard for serving it is, but I suspect corporate lawyers would not sign off on a lid that is only certified for 85 degrees if the coffee was brewed at a higher temperature.
The source of 'silly woman sues Macdonalds for millions spilling hot coffee on herself while driving' was a real event that has been retold so often that all the pertinent detail was lost - it relates to a policy macdonalds used to have for serving coffee as hot as they possibly could. McD's had done a bit of market research (back in the days before flat whites and froth-a-chinos) about what constituted 'a good coffee' and their coffee was basically very dark brown water. One of the most frequent responses they got was that coffee should be 'hot'. You'd normally brew fresh coffee at about 90 degrees - by they time its actually brewed and it hits your mug, especially if you have milk in it, its more like 60 degrees which is why you can tentatively put some in your mouth without injury.
But in the face of their market research they decided that hotter coffee was better coffee and made it their target to hand the coffee over as close to 100deg as they could. The problem with that was they were handing a lot of that coffee through the windows of peoples cars. An old lady (who was a passenger not the driver) spilt her coffee while parked - when your in a car seat its very difficult to get out of the seat and out of the scalding liquid quickly and she suffered burns where you really wouldn't want them that required quite extensive skin grafts. She became aware of other customers who had been injured in the same way and thats when the 'serve hot as possible' policy came to light - she suggested they review it. They refused.
Of course in the US you pay for your medical treatment - so in the light of their refusal to review their policy she sued them for her medical costs (often suing is part of the process of claiming on your medical insurance - the insurers want to exhaust all the options for getting someone else to pay before they pay up themselves) which were in the low 10s of thousands.
However in the US its juries not the judge that sets the level of compensation in cases like this and they can award 'punitive damages' - make an award that punishes the culprit rather than compensates the victim. Because they'd not heeded warnings and were continuing to do so the decided to set the damages as '1c for every cup of coffee McDonalds had sold that day' which turned out to be a sum over $1m.
