While plenty of us haven’t had a chance to experience whatever a CosMc’s is, there’s another singular McDonald’s experience many of us won’t find in the pot of gold at the end of the golden arches.
That would be French McDonald’s, or, as it’s known to the locals, “McDo.” We have it on good authority that the francophile edition of McDonald’s is vastly superior to its American counterparts, with its immaculate restaurants, table service, and, better still, beer and wine. But there’s one thing you’ll find overseas—other than burgers topped with blue cheese and raclette or croque monsieur and Mc-baguettes—that you won’t find here in the States.
And that’s reusable tableware.
Let’s get this out of the way first—fast food joints are some of the most productive and profitable trash-making machines in our modern, hectic hellscape, and we’re not just talking about the food itself. We’re talking millions of pounds of packaging waste, most of which will end up in a landfill (only 20% of takeaway packaging gets recycled). So when McDonald’s reusable packaging started popping up on social media in December last year, it was a genuine breath of fresh air and, potentially, a case study for how other QSRs could replicate that kind of sustainable transition.
It’s also our favorite design of the year—and don’t at us with, well, this came out at the end of 2022, but if every music outlet can rank SZA’s SOS on 2023 year-end lists, then we think this counts, too. Developed alongside McDonald’s France, Paris’s Elium Studio designed the brand new tableware, everything from fry containers and cups right on down to the trays and happy meals. The new line takes inspiration from ceramics and glassware, and special care was taken with the industrial design of the packaging, as you’ll find vents, graining, and striation, all of which add to its handsome appearance—this ain’t your usual tableware.
What’s more, Elium and McDonanld’s landed on a practical material for the tableware—and, yes, it’s plastic. Tritan, a product made by Eastman Chemical, is a plastic resin chosen for how closely it resembles glass or ceramic. Even the cold cups look a hell of a lot like the breakable stuff, but overall, the tableware has durability baked into it. It’s also BPA-free and doesn’t interfere with the taste of your fries and Big Mac. You might even recognize it as the same stuff they use to make that Nalgene bottle you’ve been schlepping around for years (unless you moved on to the new darling of reusable cups, Stanley)
Writing on Instagram, Elium noted, “It took us two years and hundreds of drawings, mock-ups, and prototypes to design each item in the line in order to match the icons they replace.” That’s because this was something that the French golden arches had to do by law. In 2020, France banned all disposable packaging and utensils in restaurants to eradicate unnecessary waste from roughly 30,000 locations. The law also gave brands like McDonald’s a 3-year headstart to conceive of a suitable replacement for its packaging.
Normally, when we write these kinds of pieces, we at least like to interview the brand or the designers who worked on the project; sadly, that’s not the case here, and it wasn’t for lack of trying. Often, designers can’t speak about the work they create at the request of the brand itself—and not to go too deep into Dieline sausage making, we’re used to this. It happens.
But with this project in particular, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that it’s likely that McDonald’s isn’t exactly proud of the project, and they don’t want to shout out its existence from the rooftops.
Which is a little weird, right? Any brand that can notch a sustainable W into its bedpost almost always falls over itself to provide you with interview subjects and press-releases-galore when a project like this launches. But McDonald’s probably doesn’t want to replicate this work.
And how do we know that? Well, they lobbied against it earlier this year.
While the EU considers a new set of packaging regulations that calls for more reusable options and decreasing the reliance on virgin materials, McDonald’s and a handful of other QSRs like Dunkin’ and Yum Brands (think Taco Bell and KFC) have formed a group called Together for Sustainable Packaging that actually calls for reconsidering said reusable packaging.
The QSR collective cited that they had issues with the amount of water restaurants would have to use in cleaning the reusable tableware, which is kind of silly when you remember the existence of, oh, I don’t know, every restaurant in the world and how they employ dishwashers? The group also worries about increased greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), hygiene, and questions over food safety. But really, it has everything to do with further disrupting their supply chain. Back in May, our own Rudy Sanchez wrote, “Comparing major companies’ environmental pledges and performance last month, a clear pattern emerged among CPG giants like Nestlé, Mondelez, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Unilever, and QSR powerhouses like McDonald’s and Starbucks. These firms continue to focus on recycling to solve the plastic crisis. A switch to reusable packaging would impose additional costs and operational complexities on these firms but would ultimately prevent the introduction of more trash and single-use plastic waste.”
So, no, McDonald’s isn’t interested in promoting reusable tableware. And that’s a shame because it’s a genuinely good and useful design, a model that other QSRs can look to as a means of eliminating wasteful, unnecessary packaging. And if you want to see more creative designs like Elium Studio’s, well, you’ll need an awful lot more regulation and laws from governments that are tired of the status quo.
Anywho, if you’re looking for more QSR brands to follow McDonald’s lead here, don’t hold your breath.