McDonald’s to phase out plastic straws in UK, Ireland

McDonald’s has become the latest corporation to impose a ban on plastic straws.

The fast food giant announced on June 15 that it will replace plastic straws in all of its restaurants throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland – totalling about 1,300 locations – by 2019.

The initiative — which is part of McDonald’s 2025 goal of sourcing guest packaging from renewable, recycled or certified sources — will start in September.

In addition to tests that began earlier this year in the UK, McDonald’s has also begun testing alternatives to plastic straws in Belgium. Later this year, McDonald’s will begin testing alternatives in select restaurants in the U.S., France, Sweden, Norway, and Australia. “In addition to testing alternative materials, in several markets including Malaysia, we will begin tests to offer straws upon request only,” the company said in a statement. “We are eager to learn from these tests around the world to develop solutions that are scalable across the globe.”

Last week, Swedish home furniture supplier Ikea pledged to remove all plastic bags, straws and other single-use plastics products its stores globally, and from customer and employee restaurants in stores by 2020. Two weeks ago, A&W Canada announced that it will eliminate plastic straws from its locations by January 2019, making it the first restaurant chain of its kind in North America to do so. And last month, Vancouver voted to ban the distribution of plastic straws as well as foam takeout containers and cups as part of its zero-waste strategy.