McDonald’s might have to bend on plastic straws

The plastic drinking straw, one of the smallest components in the mountain of trash remaining after the typical fast-food meal, has become an unlikely battleground in the war on waste.

A proposal being presented to McDonald’s shareholders at their annual meeting Thursday asks that the chain find alternatives to plastic straws at its more than 36,000 restaurants worldwide.

The vote is the latest shot in a growing backlash against excessive and hard-to-recycle packaging in the fastfood industry, whether it’s plastic wrap, plastic foam cups, boxes, carryout bags or trays. The trash pile keeps growing.

“It’s terrible, and it only seems like it is getting worse,” said Beth Terry, author of Plastic-Free: How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and How You Can Too.

All told, the nation produced 258 million tons of municipal solid waste

in 2014, compared with 88 million tons in 1960, based on the most recent data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Almost a quarter of it was containers and packaging.

McDonald’s, saying it’s already working to reduce waste and promote recycling, is recommending shareholders vote against the straw proposal.

“We continue to work to find a more sustainable solution for plastic straws globally,” the chain said in a statement. “In the meantime, we have adopted compostable straws in certain markets to meet regulations while we work with packaging experts to develop a planet-friendly, cost-effective answer for all McDonald’s restaurants.”

If McDonald’s were to ban plastic straws, it wouldn’t be alone. Alaska Airlines just said it is eliminating plastic drink stirrers on its flights. A few cities, most of them in California, have banned plastic straws.

McDonald’s points out, too, that it already has pledged to make all customer packaging from renewable, recycled or certified sources by 2025, up from 50%. It also says it will institute recycling at all its restaurants by 2025, up from 10%.

“Things are beginning to change, but the pace is still too slow,” said Eric Goldstein, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Pressure for change is building, however, forcing more food companies to talk about sustainability. About 15% of global food and drink launches mentioned environmentally friendly packaging in the 12 months leading up to May last year, up from 11% four years before, according to the global market research firm Mintel.

Pressure to cut waste also is coming directly from consumers. In the United States, 78% of adult food shoppers surveyed said brands should work to make packaging more environmentally responsible, Mintel said.

About one-third of diners say they seek out restaurants that offer environmentally friendly disposable packaging and avoid those that don’t, according to tracking firm Technomic.

Other experts, however, have their doubts.

Tom O’Guinn, a University of Wisconsin expert on consumer behavior, said packaging isn’t enough to sway diners’ decisions on where to eat.

“The average American doesn’t care a lot about this,” he said. “People don’t want to sit there and think, ‘Gee, this is a slight improvement in packaging.’ ”

But Terry said any progress is good — even if it’s just about straws.

“We are not going to solve this problem all at once,” she said.