Packaging recycling: a way to circular economy education

A new collaboration between McDonald’s And Other consumption to accompany consumers to acircular economy education. This was the focus of the debate “Innovation and alliances in the packaging recycling chain” held at Romewith institutions, players and experts to analyze new solutions to reduce the impact on the environment, improve recycling and raise customer awareness. Other consumption carried out inspections in restaurants McDonald’s located in different areas of Italy, interviewing employees, licensees and consumers. From the 2,000 interviews carried out, a short guide and video pills will be born good practices for proper waste management. The starting point is the commitment of McDonald’s on the subject, within its 670 restaurants throughout the country, with 32,000 employees and 1.2 million customers a day. Since 2019, the company has started a phase-out of single-use plastic in favor of paper. Today about 90% of the packaging of McDonald’s is made of 100% certified and recyclable paper, a result achieved also thanks to the partnership with Seat.

They attended the event Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, Minister of the Environment and Energy Security And Adolfo Urso, Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy. On stage, opinions and reports were exchanged Antonio D’Amato, president of Seda international packaging group; Carlo Montalbetti, general manager of Comieco; Filippo Brandolini, president of Utilitalia; Valter Facciotto, general manager of Conai; Roberto Calugi, general director of Fipe and Ermete Realacci, president of the Symbola foundation.

“With the announcement of the Altroconsumo campaign, we are adding another piece to our journey and we aim to actively involve our consumers as well who, with their daily choices, can make a difference and concretely contribute to speeding up this circular economy process – the words of Dario Baroni, CEO of McDonald’s Italy – Our goal is in fact to make 100% of our packaging recyclable and we are working, with the network of our restaurants, to develop strategic partnerships, both centrally and locally, which can support us in achieving this important result”.

For the institutions they spoke: Nicola Procaccini, Fdl MEP; Patrizia Toia, Pd MEP; Massimiliano Salini, FI MEP; Silvia Fregolent, Senator Az-IV-RE; Silvia Sardone, Lega MEP and Pietro Fiocchi, Fdl MEP. An important topic was the debate on Ppwr (Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation)both nationally and internationally, in the light of the tendency of the European regulator to favor the reuse of packaging rather than the use of recyclable materials which has led Italy to become an excellence in the sector: a change of position like that proposed at the EU level would lead to a greater waste of water and the impairment of the investments already put in place by the country system.

Full awareness on the part of consumers becomes central to a winning strategy on sustainability. He brought it to light general manager of Altroconsumo, Alberto Pirrone: “Among today’s and tomorrow’s challenges, the ecological transition on the one hand is the most urgent, on the other the one in which proactive collaboration between institutions, businesses and consumers is more important: if we really want to improve the environment and our communities, people must be protagonists and they must be given concrete tools to actively play their part – as they are increasingly asking to do. For this reason, Altroconsumo is happy to take on this challenge together with McDonald’s: if we want to have a real impact, more aware and responsible individual behaviors are the real critical factor for the success of any sustainability strategy, whether public or private. And this is why we must all work to ensure that people are not only a tool but the real engine of sustainable transition.”