1 OCTOBER 2022: From 1 October,McDonald’s will replace the clear plastic iced beverage cups and lids from McCafés across Western Australia with fibre and paper-based cups. The shift will remove approximately 17.5 million cups and lids – around 140 tonnes of plastic – from annual circulation.

Antoni Martinez, McDonald’s Australia CEO, said: “McDonald’s Australia is committed to using our scale for good to reduce the amount of plastic used across our business and have a positive impact on the communities and people we serve.

“By 2021, McDonald’s had phased out single-use plastic straws, cutlery and drink stirrers, removing an estimated 500 million straws and over 115 million pieces of cutlery from circulation annually – that’s around 860 tonnes of plastic, and today’s announcement is a further step in our commitment.”

Western Australia will be the first state to see this latest change, with McDonald’s planning to roll out further packaging changes across Australia, as the company progresses towards sourcing its customer packaging from renewable, recycled or certified sources.

For more than a decade, McDonald’s Australia has been working alongside the global business to scope and introduce initiatives including the removal of plastic lids from McFlurry cups, the introduction of fibre-based salad bowls, the removal of plastic carry bags and reducing the weight of sundae cups.

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For more information, please contact:

Samantha Brown on 0497 715 608 or samantha.brown@au.mcd.com

About McDonald’s

Australia’s first McDonald’s restaurant opened in Yagoona, Sydney, in 1971. Today there are over 1,020 McDonald’s restaurants across Australia, nearly 85 percent of which are franchised and run by local businessmen and women. The organisation employs more than 110,000 people in restaurants and corporate offices Australia-wide and is the largest employer of youth in the country. McDonald’s creates more than 3,000 new jobs each year and spends over $40 million per annum on training and people development.

For more information visit www.mcdonalds.com.au.