Clean Up Australia Day & McDonald's: An unpalatable alliance

I was quite stunned recently when I discovered that McDonald's has been a long-time sponsor and partner of Clean Up Australia Day. This is an annual event which encourages people to clean up general waste in their local area and waterways. 

I was struck by the incongruity of Clean Up's association with a corporation such as McDonald's, which generates large volumes of waste and which is a key contributor to Australia's rubbish problem. My latest article for Discordia, Clean Up Australia Day and McDonald's: An unpalatable alliance, looks at this issue. 
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Clean Up Australia Day and McDonald's: An unpalatable alliance

March 2013

The man on screen flashed a cheerful smile, and implored fellow Australians to join him in the environmental campaign. Clean Up Australia Day was approaching, and a year’s worth of refuse clogging the streets and waterways was awaiting an army of eager volunteers.

His manner was friendly, his work was admirable… and his shirt was adorned with the unmistakable golden arches logo.

Recovering from my initial shock, I decided the ad was a spoof. What a great satirical clip, I thought. McDonald’s partnering with Clean Up Australia Day – now wouldn’t that be a laugh?!

But then the ad rolled to a finish, with no disclaimer in sight.

After some searching on the Clean Up website, I discovered that McDonald’s has been a sponsor, a “founding partner”, of Clean Up Australia Day since 1989.

Who knew? I certainly didn’t, and thinking myself a bit ignorant, I quizzed a bunch of friends. None of them had known either.

Rubbish

I haven’t frequented a McDonald’s store since resigning as a grossly underpaid teenage “crew member” of the food giant in the mid-90s. As an employee, I was privy – and party to - the sickening scale of food wastage generated by McDonald’s each day. Much of the food that was cooked was destined for the bin from its inception. 

As food such as burgers were generally not made to order, but rather cooked en masse and allotted into a timer system, those which exceeded their (brief) use-by-date in the absence of a purchase were tossed into large bins. I recall carrying out the nightly back-breaking task of emptying the bins - absolutely brimming with wrapped, untouched burgers - into one massive disposal unit.

I still often encounter the junk food corporation’s trash, in the form of its branded packaging, strewn carelessly along streets and gutters. According to a Keep Australia Beautiful study, 10 per cent of all litter in Australia originates from McDonald's. When communities lodge opposition to a proposed McDonald’s store in their area, concern over rubbish is usually a chief point of contention. 

This is despite McDonald’s Australia’s Clean Streets program, where lucky crew members supposedly do regular trash-duty around a store’s surrounding streets. 

Conscious or culpable?

The ubiquitous fast food chain does not enjoy a healthy environmental track record. McDonald’s uses an inordinate amount of packaging, the majority of which is used only fleetingly before being discarded. Also, its ardent agenda to lure children in-store means that plastic “Happy Meal” toys and their accompanying packaging are perpetually on the menu.

Even more alarming are some of the less visible aspects of its operations, such as the impact of the company’s transportation and food refrigeration, and the steep carbon and ecological footprint of their sale of resource-intensive meat and dairy products. 30% of the Earth’s entire land area and 70% of all agricultural land are appropriated for animal agriculture. Animal husbandry is also a primary driver of soil erosion and sedimentation, high levels of pesticide use and freshwater pollution.

It is almost impossible to find reliable figures of annual food wastage generated in Australia by McDonald’s. I’ve been told by a recent Australian customer that McDonald’s now makes a range of its products directly to order, but I’m aware that the timer system is still used for various items, and I can’t comment on the company’s practices overseas. 

However, try as they might, it would be difficult for Clean Up to deny that McDonald’s is synonymous with immense waste, environmental degradation, and a throw-away culture. Yet, Clean Up has counted McDonald’s as a sponsor for more than two decades, and McDonald’s proudly cites its yearly support of the Clean Up Australia Day program.

The chain’s Australian operations also proudly claim to participate in the Sydney Water Every Drop Counts initiative, but it could be argued that this is a convenient diversion from the exorbitant water usage of the animal agriculture industries on which McDonald’s so heavily relies.

Through its association with these “green” initiatives and programs, and its much-publicised (but arguably, inadequate) recycling and packaging changes across some markets, McDonald’s has cunningly cultivated an image as a “green leader”. Its relentless PR machine ensures a wealth of media releases and column inches are devoted to reporting on the company’s latest “eco-friendly” innovations.

But McDonald’s, which serves 69 million customers a day, is NOT an environmental organisation, or a company producing “eco-friendly” products. It is a corporation driven by an insatiable profit motive, which peddles junk food with a colossal environmental, health and ethical toll.

An odd partnership = a confused message

Many undoubtedly believe that the food giant’s involvement in Clean Up Australia Day should be applauded. That at least McDonald’s is taking some steps to clean up the country’s rubbish, of which it’s a significant contributor. But let’s be real here - the motives are not philanthropic.

McDonald’s benefits from the association in more ways than one: it portrays an image of environmental concern and vigilance, while increasing its advertising reach. The arrangement is mutually beneficial, as the sheer monetary power of McDonald’s would equate to healthy sponsorship funds and unparalleled promotion for Clean Up Australia Day.

Maybe Clean Up could not achieve this level of exposure without the backing of such a high profile company. BUT – what is the campaign’s long term message? Shouldn’t it be to reduce waste, the production of unnecessary items, and littering in the first place? Clean Up Australia Day is, after all, a campaign which is ultimately a band-aid measure in the context of the wider problem of over-production, consumerism, and an unsustainable use of resources.

I would like to see Clean Up partner with companies which promote sustainability and environmental protection along their entire supply chain. Clean Up’s association with McDonald’s promotes a message that tokenistic gestures are adequate, thus undermining their credibility as an environmental campaign.

I do believe that Clean Up’s work is commendable. 16,000 tonnes of rubbish was collected during the 2012 event. But the message of reducing and taking responsibility for waste is fundamentally incompatible with the business operations of a company such as McDonald’s. 

The junk food chain may have undertaken some tweaking and tinkering of their operations, but there’s no escaping the fact that they are far from the benchmark of an environmentally-friendly business.

Let’s recognise this partnership for what it is: just another attempt at greenwashing.

Postscript: Obtaining accurate figures about McDonald’s and its waste production proved difficult. Furthermore, many of the web search terms related to the topic led directly back to McDonald’s and its PR apparatus.