McDonald's: 50/50 recycled and bio-based materials to make clear plastic cups
McDonald's will work with its partners INEOS, LyondellBasell, as well as polymer renewable feedstock solutions provider Neste, and North American food and beverage packaging provider Pactiv Evergreen to use a mass-balanced approach to produce the Recycled solutions, trial production of clear plastic cups from post-consumer plastic and bio-based materials such as used cooking oil.
According to McDonald's, the clear plastic cup is a 50:50 blend of post-consumer plastic material and bio-based material. The company defines bio-based materials as materials derived from biomass, such as plants, and used cooking oils will be included in this section.
McDonald's said the materials will be combined to produce the cups through a mass balance approach, which will allow it to measure and track inputs of recycled and bio-based materials used in the process, while also including traditional fossil fuel sources.
The new cups will be available at 28 select McDonald's restaurants in Georgia, USA. For local consumers, McDonald's recommends that the cups can be rinsed and placed in any recycling bin. However, the lids and straws that come with new cups are currently non-recyclable. Recycled cups, creating more post-consumer materials for other items.
McDonald's added that the new clear cups are nearly identical to the company's existing cups. Consumers are unlikely to notice any difference between the previous and new McDonald's cups.
