The report, intended to commit to new measures to reduce plastic and disposable packaging, draws on its own flawed practices to forecast a ‘worst-case scenario’ for reusable packaging.
In October 2025, McDonald’s released a report, ‘The Complex Reality of Reusable Packaging in Europe’, stating its position on reusable packaging based on an analysis of its packaging practices from McDonald’s case studies in France, Germany and the Netherlands. The report comes in response to a resolution filed by its own shareholders in 2021, calling on the company to publish a report describing how the company will reduce its plastic use by shifting away from single-use packaging.
Rather than exploring measures that it will implement to reduce its reliance on single-use and plastic packaging, or cast light on other high-functioning “on-site” and “to-go” reuse models, the company has challenged the underlying environmental benefits, continuing to throw its weight behind recycling. McDonald’s based its analysis on unverifiable data from its own case studies, themselves poorly implemented reuse systems, thereby creating an overly pessimistic sample from which to draw its conclusions on reusable packaging.
McDonald’s position paper is not just theoretical; its lobbying activities have had enormous consequences on policy development in recent years. The company led a huge, multi-year lobbying campaign, successfully blocking a component of the European Union’s Paper and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) to require reusables for “on-site” dining and some portion to go reusables from fast food chains like McDonald’s.
This report marks a continuation of the strategy it employed to challenge reusable packaging regulation, which has been explored in our 2024 report “McDonald’s Hamburgluring Reuse: A Warning to US and Canadian Policymakers. Our report details the tactics McDonald’s employed to avoid regulation and sow doubt on reusable foodware packaging.
There are numerous issues at play in McDonald’s report approach:
- Unverifiable claims: McDonald’s data is wholly unverifiable since it has only drawn on case studies from its own data. Due to its data being proprietary, it cannot be verified nor scrutinized. McDonald’s data on the return rate of its food serviceware is central to its environmental analysis of the product.
- Poor performance: The study’s ‘2030 scenario’ modeling is based on a return rate of 2.6 returns per packaging item, drawing from its case study in Germany in 2024. The report draws from its lower-performing system in Germany, which saw 2.6 returns in rather than its higher-performing system in France which reports 33.9 returns. By choosing its lower-performing system, it appears to be skewing the results of reusable packaging negatively. By comparison, our report (page ii) has cited several examples of companies deploying reusable foodware packaging that are achieving 50-100+ uses, including examples like Burger King.
- False equivalency in reuse models: McDonald’s “Scenario 2030” is supposed to simulate the EU PPWR, but does not accurately reflect the policy model. The PPWR was primarily designed to require reuse for on-site dining, with just a small portion dedicated to to-go food serviceware. McDonald’s modeling centers Germany’s example, which was optional reusables on dine-in or to-go, a different model garnering a pitiful 2.6 return rate.
- Minimizing the capacity for improvements in the reusables: While the report affords room for optimizing recycling, which it’s relied on for decades, it affords reusables little such room for long-term optimization through the likes of education, improved systems design or further testing, despite the reusables only being trialled for relatively short periods before the study.
- McDonald’s chooses plastic reusables: By utilizing plastic reusable food serviceware, McDonald’s is claiming that switching to fibre-based disposable food serviceware results in a reduction in plastics used. This logic is only upheld by McDonald’s centering of plastic in its reusable portfolio.
- Overly optimistic on Fiber/Recyclables: The report fails to recognize that while it competes for scarce recycled fibrewear, there are many reasons their fiber-based disposable items won’t be recycled: soiling the fiber-based items, their small size means it often avoid being sorted and baled as well as the fact that many McDonald’s restaurants themselves don’t even have recycling bins on site.
Sam Pearse, Campaigns Director with the Story of Stuff Project, stated:
McDonald’s latest report appears to be continuing its practice of cherry-picking data to frame an overly pessimistic model for reusable foodware, in doing so making the case that it’s less environmentally-friendly than disposables. Considering the report comes on the back of interest in its own shareholders in advancing reusable packaging, it lacks credibility or genuine willingness to assimilate elements of reusable packaging, an evidently better solution than recycling.
Story of Stuff released a report in 2024 detailing McDonald’s campaign to derail EU reusables in the food serviceware sector, alongside the wider implications in our report: McDonald’s Hamburglaring Reuse: A Warning for US and Canadian Policymakers. You can send a letter to McDonald’s here calling on McDonald’s to shift to introducing reuse systems and comply with regional policies in good faith across their restaurants.
Further Resources
- McDonald’s Report: The Complex Reality of Reusable Packaging in Europe: Environmental, financial and operational impacts Environmental, financial and operational impacts
- As You Sow shareholder resolution preceding McDonald’s report
- Story of Stuff 2024 Report: McDonald’s Hamburgaring Reuse: A Warning for US and Canadian Policymakers
