McDonald’s will be using their restaurants in the United Kingdom to see if they can ditch the plastic when serving their drinks. That’s about 1,300 restaurants that use an estimated 8.5 billion plastic straws a year.
In an attempt to reduce their carbon footprint, the fast food empire will be replacing plastic straws with paper straws in all McDonald’s UK branches. In comparison to the 200 years it takes for one plastic straw to decompose, paper straws only take about 180 days to biodegrade (given the right conditions). These straws are made of products cheap and renewable such as starch corn, based resins, and bamboo.
The reason why McDonald’s is opting for an alternative to plastic straws rather than banning them completely is in consideration of PWDs with conditions such as muscular atrophy. For people like them, straws are their major means of eating or drinking.
We’d like to commend McDo for this small but notable contribution in the fight to save our environment. You know what they say, ‘baby steps.’
Fingers crossed they’ll start getting rid of their other single-use items, too.
Photos courtesy of Inquirer.net
Read more:
A case against plastic straws: Are they really necessary?
Starbucks is not satisfied with their limited reusable cups
How local brands help customers protect the environment
Are you stuffing your ecobricks right?
Writer: ANTHEA REYES
