Is McDonald’s ditching plastic straws? Details revealed as brand tests environment-friendly strawless lids 

Taking the pledge to reduce its plastic waste forward, McDonald’s has started testing environment-friendly strawless lids at limited locations across the country. Unlike the previous lids that came with a straw opening, the new one features a pullback tab that reveals a half-moon opening for sipping your drink. The top of the new lid stays intact until you pull the tab, making it easier to carry your drink safely without any unexpected spillages.

Strawless lids are being tested at all participating locations across the country, with the Minneapolis area being one of them. There have also been reports of store staff promoting the new lids by telling customers that they will only get straws with their drink if they request it.

The straw-free lids ease takeout and delivery orders and lessen the extra waste that paper and plastic straws generate, which frequently ends up in landfills and the oceans. Though the fast food chain is testing strawless lids, it is not completely ditching straws because the new lids are only available with cold beverages and drinks at limited participating locations across the country.

McDonald’s tests strawless lids in select U.S. markets (Image via Starbucks)

In a statement to the press, a McDonald’s representative talks about the new tests, quoting:

"McDonald's is currently testing strawless lids for our cold beverages in select U.S. markets."

Speaking about the idea behind the strawless lids, the representative added:

"These lids help optimize our packaging and eliminate the use of small plastics, just one example of the many solutions we're reviewing as part of our ongoing global commitment to reduce waste across restaurants and advance recycling."

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It is not the first time McDonald’s has tested strawless lids

Enter captionStarwless lids make for excellent take-out and delivery packaging (Image via Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Over the last few years, McDonald’s has been testing several packaging alternatives to reduce the usage of its plastic waste. From sourcing recycled packaging materials to the introduction of paper straws, the fast food chain has tried many options to limit its packaging waste. Though strawless lids may be new to U.S. markets, they have been used in the Philippines since June 2021. First started as test alternatives at selected stores, strawless lids were soon adopted by all McDonald’s stores in the Philippines, and are extensively used for all orders of cold beverages.

Plastic straws have always been a problem for all major fast-food chains across the globe. Although they are cheap in terms of production costs, they often become a headache for fast food chains as they start piling up in the waste. As per reports from the National Geographic Channel, out of the eight million tons of plastic that end up in the ocean every year, nearly 0.025 percent comes from plastic straws. As fast food chains around the world compete to sway customers with their offerings, the amount of packaging waste they generate keeps increasing.

Single-use plastic straws make up for one of the highest concentration of fast food waste (Image via ShutterStock)

The world's largest fast-food restaurant chain, McDonald’s, has also been the target of regular criticism because of its waste management. Reigning at the top position, the chain services hundreds and thousands of customers every minute, which in turn generates an equally large amount of discarded waste including packaging, cutlery, straws, cups, and more.

To tackle the waste problem, McDonald’s has been trying to source packaging materials from recycled or certified sources, thus ''aiming for 100% certified, recycled or renewable materials by the end of 2025''.