McDonald’s innovates in recycling paper cups

In the publishing industry, this is a first, according to McDonald’s, which developed this recycling process with English paper manufacturer James Cropper.

Cups become books. In Germany, for a month, children could discover in their McDonald’s menus books made from recycled cardboard cups. The material for this collection of seven books is “a world first” according to the fast-food chain.

In France, cups are recycled in the household or industrial cardboard packaging stream and are transformed into rolls or cardboard sheets to become packaging again. They can also be recovered separately and transformed into egg cartons.
In Germany, for the past three years, McDonald’s restaurant cups have been reused for other purposes. But this time, with these “paper cup” books, the fast food chain has gone even further. McDonald’s Germany was kind enough to tell us more about this innovation.

“Both the paper and the book cover are made from recycled cup materials. The composition of the paper used for the books is 60% FSC virgin paper and 40% recycled content.” explains the company.

Cups recycled into toilet paper and building materials

Cup recycling starts with sorting them. Since 2019, McDonald’s has implemented a separate collection of its cold drink cups in its German restaurants with the help of logistics partners. Then, these cups are processed into toilet paper and building materials.

“In recent years, we have already printed our sustainability brochures on this so-called goblet paper. With these Happy Meal books, we faced another challenge because of the high quality and safety standards that apply to our Happy Meal.
That’s why we worked with a specialized processor, James Cropper (English paper manufacturer, editor’s note) , which has the knowledge, technology and innovation to achieve this quality transformation at a high level.”

The paper cup, a good example of upcycling

For McDonald’s, this is an excellent example of successful circular innovation, as waste is transformed by ‘upcycling’ (or overcycling, NLDR) that is, into a product of greater value.
“And in the publishing industry, our books made from cooler cups are the first of their kind.”

These recycled cup books were only distributed over a short period of time, from January 13 to February 16, 2022. “The availability of cup stock is the main factor that determines whether we can produce recycled books over a longer period than the time of a special operation. This is a real challenge, as during the last two years of pandemic, a large number of restaurants have had to close.”

More recycling projects to come

This collection of books in recycled cups is a first pilot project that will serve as a basis for the development of other recycling projects. “Together with our partners, we are researching and developing new and innovative solutions – even beyond recycling our paper cups.”

An economical recycling process

According to McDonald’s, this recycling process is economical.
“Since this is a pioneering initiative, there is of course a financial cost to this innovation. But yes. Currently, recycled paper is more expensive than new paper. And FSC responsibly sourced paper is more expensive than non-FSC paper. For long-term business success and a contribution to greater sustainability, we consider this economic investment to be absolutely sound at this time. (Euros) As technology advances and more people recycle, we are confident that recycling will become a more financially economical option over the years.”