On this cold December noon, red-cheeked high school students chow down on a hamburger upstairs at McDonald’s. In front of them, a cone of bright red plastic fries, a prototype of the reusable containers that will be mandatory from January 1 in fast food.
“I wasn’t aware of it, but I’m fine with it being required,” approves 16-year-old Tom Fresneau, who came for lunch with his friend Ilane. “Then it costs more than paper and cardboard, I understand that this is a problem for small fast food restaurants that run the risk of increasing their prices,” he remarks.
As of January 1, fast food restaurants must use reusable tableware for food and drinks served at the table, whether they are glasses, lids, plates, containers or cutlery, in application of the law on the fight against waste and the circular economy (Agec) voted in 2020.
180,000 tons of waste each year
Fast food chains serve 6 billion meals a year at 30,000 outlets in France, generating 180,000 tons of waste a year. For large chains such as McDonald’s, Quick, KFC or Domino’s Pizza, which use disposable containers and tableware profusely, it is a question of changing the model.
Located on a very commercial street, the McDonald’s in Levallois-Perret (Hauts-de-Seine) had to hire “for daytime diving, hostesses at the reception to accompany customers and explain the classification because initially the weather was very complicated, and also at the counter level and the table service”, explains María Varela, its director, to AFP.
“Everything that used to be cardboard is now reusable plastic. We had to review procedures in the kitchen, separate on-the-spot orders from take-out, provide storage space…”, she explains. The renovation works in the establishment provided the opportunity to adapt the small kitchen to this new requirement.
Cups “often removed”
This pilot establishment, which employs 70 people and makes 80% of its sales at home or to take away -compared to 50% on average for the 1,527 McDonald’s in France- is one of those that, over the last year, has tested various reusable glass or porcelain containers; before the chain opted for titan plastic, which is reputed to be very resistant.
By January 1, 90% of the chain’s restaurants will be ready, according to a spokesperson for McDonald’s France. Customers still sometimes throw the containers in the trash… or take them with them, especially young people, who are used to finishing their drinks outside the establishment.
At Subway, compliance with an obligation that “concerns 95% of the cups,” according to a spokesperson, also required “several months of experimentation and testing,” an “awareness campaign” with franchisees, and interior displays for customers.
Is your application “threatened”?
Despite the “immediate environmental gain” that this measure represents, its application is “threatened”, estimated five NGOs, in a column published by the sunday newspaper beginning of December.
Because if some players “show goodwill”, others “will very likely not meet the deadline of January 1”, worry Surfrider, Zero Waste France, No Plastic in my Sea, Collectif EC2027 and Réseau Consigne, who call consumers to “punish signs that do not respect the law” and the government to control the application of the law.
In fact, with less than two weeks to go before the deadline, the big retailers are reluctant to detail their level of preparation and the investment made.
As for the European packaging industry (EPPA), it believes that reusable tableware has “ultimately a worse environmental balance than paper packaging”. “You have to wash it and dry it”, with a lot of “energy, water and detergents”, its president Éric Le Lay stressed in a recent column.
Source: BFM TV
