- Using social networks, the Zero Waste at McDonald's collective tried to verify which restaurants of the brand in France have implemented indoor sorting of waste.
- This sorting of waste has theoretically been compulsory since 2016 and the introduction of the “5 flows” directive, but has all the trouble in the world to be applied by fast food chains.
- This summer, fifteen giants of the sector had committed to institute the sorting of waste in the dining room, in 70% of their restaurants. The McDo Zero Waste card shows that McDo, the market leader, is not there. Bad will? Not only.
It is a map of France studded with red crosses. There are nearly 900 of them distributed in mainland France and overseas, which would correspond to as many McDonald's restaurants which, in 2020, would still not ensure the selective sorting of waste in their rooms.
This card is the result of collaborative work by the citizen collective Zero waste at McDonald's, launched in January 2019 by Marine Laclautre. The young woman, originally from Poitiers, explains having one day accompanied friends in a McDonald's and having been dumbfounded by the overflowing trays of packaging thrown in the same bin. "In total contradiction with the" 5 flows "decree of March 10, 2016, which requires them to sort their waste," she recalls.
Far from 70%
Since then, the zero waste collective at McDonald's has never given up on the fast-food brand. Not even after the employment contract signed on June 11 between the Secretary of State for the Ecological Transition, Brune Poirson, and fifteen giants of the fast food industry, including McDonald's France. The latter undertook to make 100% of their restaurants operational for sorting waste by December 30, 2021. With, as a point of progress, being at least 70% by the end of 2019.
"The problem is that everything has been done to ensure that these brands comply with a law that is already four years old, plague Marine Laclautre. From consultations to ultimatums, through these plans in stages. Nothing works. This is all the observation made by this collaborative map. “We launched a call on social networks to take pictures of indoor trash cans in McDonald's restaurants,” says Zoe, a member of the collective. We completed by calling the restaurants for which we had no data. We were thus able to list 1,482 restaurants, out of the 1,488 that the brand has in mainland France and in the French overseas departments and territories. Result: only 40% sorted waste in the room. Far, therefore, from the 70% promised.
We do not put them all so as not to spam you but photo N.72 comes to us from #Martinique by Damien H. and it's a great NO TRI ... operation #mcpoubelle #zerodechetaumcdo #zerowaste # 1dechetparjour #environnement Soon the 1st citizen collaborative report with your photos! pic.twitter.com/9yyvBy0bC1
- Zero Waste at McDonald's (@ZerodechetM) November 4, 2019 Here is a photo of #McDonalds de Suresnes (92) taken recently. Still no sorting bin so necessarily always no respect for the "5 Flux" decree.
cc @villedesuresnes @HNassera # ZéroDechetauMcDo pic.twitter.com/N0sZQR2zwI
"Ok BUT where do I put my cup without straw?" 😷 .. NO SORTING at McDonald's La Queue Lez Yvelines @ Prefet78 !! Virtuous strategy VS Reality: recyclable cardboard BUT not recycled ... #mcpoubelle #zerowaste #zerodechet #Greenwashing
SHARE: https://t.co/PdpEDgWMn2 pic.twitter.com/YoRyk3NiaP
NO SORTING at McDonald's Limoges Palais des sports (87) @ VilleLimoges87! A full trash can that sticks out its tongue .. between disgust and irony ?? We'r not lovin it -
SHARE THE PETITION for an eco-responsible McDonald's: https://t.co/4VdU27D8Cp #zerowaste #mcpoubelle pic.twitter.com/IqdWyHDVF5
"Not just McDonald's"
Contacted, McDonald's France did not wish to answer our questions, but gives its position on the subject, in a few lines, by email. "Since the signing of the commitment charter, we have opened sorting, collection and recovery [waste] channels at the rate of two McDonald's restaurants per working day," she announces. "The brand will be able to offer selective sorting in 100% of its restaurants in three years," she assures further.
Leader of the fast food market in France, with 1.8 million meals served per day, McDonald's is necessarily scrutinized more than the others for management. In a report published in 2017, the NGO Zero Waste France estimated that the brand generated, through its restaurants, 115 tonnes of packaging per day, or 42,000 tonnes per year. And that it has long been close to "zero in terms of efforts made in sorting its waste". “Objectively, unlike other brands, McDonald's has finally seriously looked into the subject, concedes today Laura Chatel, advocacy manager at Zero Waste France. Nevertheless, we are still not at 70%. Above all, the installation of bins in the room does not guarantee that the waste will not then be poured into a common bin before being collected. However, these signs seem to have great difficulty in organizing the collection of this sorted waste. "
Sorting bins are not everything
Sandra Chassan, Marketing and Communication Director of Subway France * and Belgium, confirms these difficulties. There are many reasons: “In some areas, collection providers are difficult to find,” she begins. Some of our restaurants are also difficult to access for trucks. Those located in the city center, for example. We also generally have little space to store waste, so we have to be collected regularly… ”
These are all factors that potentially explode collection costs. “We are currently working with competing brands to find solutions,” continues Sandra Chassan. Experiments are already underway. "
Go straight to reusable dishes?
For Laura Chatel, these difficulties underline the fragility of the “all disposable” model on which fast food rested until then. "There are two solutions," she says. Either these signs invest the money they need to ensure the proper sorting and collection of their waste, or they switch today to reusable dishes. "
A nod to the anti-waste law definitively adopted on January 30, and to one of its measures pushed by Zero Waste: the elimination of disposable containers in fast food on January 1, 2023. The measure goes badly at the National Union food and fast food (Snarr), which considers it “totally contradictory” with this objective of reaching 100% of restaurants equipped for sorting waste in 2021.
What to even dissuade the signs from investing in sorting devices which could be obsolete in three years? “The law is not à la carte, we answer in the entourage of Brune Poirson. There is no choice between the "5 flux" directive or the elimination of disposable dishes, but to comply with these two measures. "
A charter to ask mayors to act
For now, the Ministry of Ecological Transition has not punched the table, although the first objective of the employment contract - that, therefore, to introduce sorting in the dining room in 70% of their restaurants at the end of 2019 - was not reached by the 15 signatory brands. "To date, sorting in the dining room is effective in just over 40% of their restaurants," we still say in the entourage of Brune Poirson. But we had the assurance that the investments had already been made to equip the remaining 30% by the end of the first half. The deployment of equipment and the organization of collections are underway. "
Marine Laclautre is willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. But not enough to question the call for mayors launched by Zero Waste at McDo a few days before the municipal elections. "Failure to comply with the sorting obligation may result in administrative sanctions, in particular the suspension of the company's activity, the payment of a daily penalty, or even a maximum fine of 150,000 euros", recalls the group in a charter that he addresses to candidates for municipal elections. "What is less known is that these sanctions are applicable to mayors," says Marine Laclautre.
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* The Subway brand has 450 restaurants in France, "including around 250 restaurants affected by the" 5 flows "directive, that is to say generating more than 1,100 liters of waste per week," explains Sandra Chassan, Marketing and Communication Director from Subway France. And of these 250 restaurants, 74% have now implemented indoor waste sorting. We have also made communication media available to our franchisees for both our team members and consumers, the objective also being to encourage them to sort their packaging. "
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