McDonald's to 'ban polystyrene packaging by year end'

Fast food juggernaut McDonald's has announced that it will ban all polystyrene foam packaging products from its restaurants by the end of 2018.

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McDonalds

The company announced its plans to eliminate this sort of packaging within its '2020 Aspirational Goals', which includes making sure 100 per cent of its fibre-based packaging will be from recycled and certified sources by 2020. Currently 64 per cent of all fibre-based packaging from McDonald's is from these sources.

Clamshell packaging

Currently two per cent of all McDonald's packaging is foam by weight, the brand will find other packaging products to phase out difficult-to-recycle polystyrene foam packaging in the coming months.

"McDonald’s is committed to sustainability as a core business practice today and as our company grows," the company states. "The environmental impact of our packaging is a top priority. Many efforts are under way to improve the sustainability of our packaging.

Polystyrene foam clamshell packaging is regularly used in the fast food industry, but McDonald's has been steadily replacing its foam packaging with cardboard and wrapper-based alternatives in recent years.