McDonald’s Malta marks Global Recycling Day with latest results and fresh commitment

Premier Restaurants Malta, which operates McDonald’s on the island, has reduced 15 tonnes of plastic waste in 2023 as part of its drive to become plastic-free by 2025.

Globally, McDonald’s is proud to be more than 80% of the way towards its goal of sourcing 100% of primary guest packaging from renewable, recycled or certified materials, as part of its commitment to a circular economy and net zero emissions by 2050.

As the world marked Global Recycling Day on 18 March, the McDonald’s commitment was renewed by Premier Capi

tal plc, the developmental licensee for McDonald’s in six countries: Malta, Romania, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

“Representing one of the world’s greatest global brands gives us the opportunity to make a real impact when we introduce important changes in our processes. We are serious about our commitment to keep communities clean, protect the planet for future generations to ensure our long-term business resilience and being transparent about our environmental actions. We would also like to encourage our customers to actively participate and join our mission by using our recycling stations to separate waste at our restaurants,” said Manuele Vagnoli, director of ESG at Premier Capital.

McDonald’s is achieving its goals worldwide through a variety of strategies, including the elimination of unnecessary packaging, the transition away from virgin fossil fuel-based plastics, increased use of recycled materials, simplifying recycling for customers, as well as strategic partnerships with other brands on the same mission. Since 2018, McDonald’s has already halved its use of plastics in Happy Meal toys around the world and other initiatives have included switching to paper-based straws, removing unnecessary plastic lids and introducing salad boxes and cutlery made from renewable fibre.

In Malta, Premier Restaurants has achieved its target of having 70% of all its waste recycled and introduced waste separation in both kitchen and lobby areas. Since 2019, its supply chain division has diligently pursued sustainable alternatives to primary packaging plastics, sourcing materials that are recyclable, renewable or certified. As a result of these efforts, McDonald’s locally has avoided the acquisition and distribution of an estimated 15 tonnes of plastic primary packaging annually.

Significant success was also registered in Premier Capital’s Greek operation where McDonald’s became one of the first food retail networks in the country to feature a zerowaste programme to minimise and recycle waste from its restaurants, including packaging and food waste from the restaurant floor and the kitchen, in collaboration with Polygreen. A zero-waste strategy is an approach aimed at minimising or eliminating the amount of waste sent to landfill sites through the use of waste reduction, reusing, recycling, composting, using waste for energy and other practices. So far, two of its restaurants are successfully operating this programme and the plan is to roll it out to more restaurants over the coming years, paired with an awareness campaign.