McDonald’s

As it is a fast-food chain, many people see McDonald’s as not environmentally-friendly or sustainable. After further investigation, we found that the restaurant has made some efforts to be more sustainable. For example, McDonald’s restaurants do not use any seasonal decorations or any decorative plants or pieces inside their restaurants. This means that no plastic was wasted on shop decorations in McDonald’s which means it achieved a score of 4/4 for shop decoration.

Unfortunately, McDonald’s in Japan is currently not using LED lights in their restaurants. Using LED lights decreases greenhouse gas emissions by reducing the energy used in lighting. Inside the restaurant, the average temperature was very low, at 26.3ºC. We saw that the lights were very dim and the automatic door was mostly closed. This meant the air conditioning could stay inside of the restaurant itself instead of being lost in the outside air, and less energy was used on very bright

lights. With these factors, McDonald’s achieved a score of 2.25/4 for their energy use.

The fast-food chain is also using food products that mainly come from inside Japan. This reduces the carbon footprint created by ships and planes used for long-distance imports. Since it is reducing the carbon usage for importing goods from far away, McDonald’s scores a 2.5/4 for its source and type of product used. 

After asking McDonald’s employees, we also found that all the waste produced by the restaurant is sorted into burnable and unburnable bins. However, there is a large amount of non-recyclable waste that is made, and McDonald’s also produces plastic waste through its Happy Meal toys. After looking at these different practices, McDonald’s earned a score of 3/4 for the sorting of waste.

Even with its efforts to be more sustainable, McDonald’s uses mostly plastic and non-renewable types of packaging. There is also no option to use a reusable cup or container. This is their lowest score on packaging: 1/4.

On top of this McDonald’s does not promote eco-consciousness to its customers, except for the choice between plastic and paper bags given for take-out. This gives McDonald’s a score of 1.5/4 for eco-consciousness. 

Because of the factors previously stated, we would not recommend McDonald’s as a sustainable restaurant for the students of our school to visit very often.