CASE STUDY No. 9601
KEY WORDS= FOOD WRAP, FOOD CONTAINERS, CARRY-OUT
McDonald's Corporation
Campus Office Building
Kroc's Drive
Oak Brook, IL 60521
Contact: Neal Johnson, Perseco, 701 Harger Road, Oak Brook, IL 60521. Tel:
708-575-4400.
Summary
Switching from a cardboard container to a grease-resistant paper container for its hash browns, McDonald's reduces solid waste by 3.5 million pounds and saves about $4 million a year.
Action
McDonald's is widely known for taking initiatives in waste prevention and solid waste reduction. Perseco, an independent company, is employed by McDonald's to design and develop packaging for the fast-food company. When making packaging decisions, the company weighs four factors:
For many years, McDonald's had packaged its hash brown potatoes, a breakfast menu item, in a cardboard-like carton of approximately 110# basis weight. The cardboard was thick enough to absorb grease and keep it off customers' hands.
In 1994, Perseco developed a new container for hash browns, illustrated at right. It is manufactured of 28# bleached white paper, coated with 3M's Scotchban FC-807 (info: 612-737-6501) for grease resistance and sealed at the bottom with a standard adhesive. McDonald's arched M and other simple graphics are printed in red.
The new hash browns bag weighs about one-quarter of the old container and requires less energy to produce. McDonald's calculates that the new bag has reduced the company's solid waste production by about 3.5 million pounds a year.
Payback
Estimated at well under 1 year. McDonald's believes its total savings, including reductions in cost of container, cost of disposal, and shipping-storage, are approximately $4 million a year.
Additional Waste Prevented
Bulk packages of the new hash browns bag occupy only 30% of the space (cube) of
comparable quantities of the old bag. Thus, 70% less space is required to ship and store
the new bag.