McDonald's still rejects reusable mugs but promises change following customer outrage

McDonald's Canada plans to change its general policy of rejecting reusable mugs, a practice that has angered customers for years.

On Tuesday, the restaurant chaintold CBC News that it hopes to have a newnational policy in place by the end of February, which willallow customers tobeserved coffee or tea in their personalmuginstead of a disposable cup.

"We listen to our guests, and we know this is an area of growing importance to Canadians," said spokesperson Ryma Boussoufa in an email.

The statement comes after CBC News first reached out to McDonald's in October, inquiringabout customer anger over its current policy.

Brenya Green said she was stunnedwhen she recently ordered a coffee at McDonald's and the restaurant chaintold her that drinks must be served in disposable cups for sanitary reasons.

"I just thought it was ridiculous," said Green, who lives in Toronto. "I've been to so many coffee shops and I've never encountered that before."

McDonald's Canada told CBC News thatcurrently, individuallocations decide if they will accept personalmugs. However, on Twitter, the chain has provided a more detailedexplanation, tellingnumerous irate customersthat, while some locations may accept reusable mugs, it "normally" rejects them "to avoid cross-contamination."

As concerns over the environment grow, McDonald's along with other fast food restaurants faces pressure to curb its takeout waste.

Disposable paper coffee cups are a big concern, because they're lined with plastic, which prevents leakagebutmakesthem difficult to recycle. As a result, most municipal recycling depots including Toronto's reject them, so they wind up in landfills.

Research firm Euromonitorestimates Canadians bought 2.49billion litres of brewed coffee from food service outlets in 2019, enough tofill almostsix billion medium-sized coffee cups.

'Just not acceptable'

Many coffee shops in Canada have accepted reusable mugs for years, prompting customers to question McDonald's current policy.

"It's just not acceptable," said Judith Banville of Craighurst, Ont., who blasted McDonald's on Facebook in September after the restaurant refused toserve her tea in her personal mug. "It does not make sense to continue to prevent people from using a reusable cup."

Brenya Greenworks as a sales representative for Adventure Canada, which offers Arctic expeditions, and said she became passionate about the environment after seeing firsthand how global warming is shrinking glaciers.

"We're seeing it now and it's scary."

To expose the McDonald's policy on reusable mugs, Green returned to the restaurant with a colleague, Victoria Polsoni, who filmed Green again failing to have acoffee served in her personal mug. Since it was posted on Facebook in August, the video has garnered 10,000 views.

"I just had to tell this story," said Polsoni, who also lives in Toronto. "It triggered a fire inside me."

Coffee competitors Tim Hortons and Starbucks said thatthey have accepted customers' reusable mugs for decades, and evenprovide a 10 cent discount to customers who use them.

However, several Tim Hortons customers complained to CBC News that they have witnessed employees at certain locations pour thecoffee into a disposable cup before filling a customer's reusable mug.

Tim Hortons told CBC that all locations should pour customers' drinks directly into their reusable mugs as long as they're clean.

Old habits hard to break

Even though Tim Hortons and Starbucks accept reusable cups, they still face a challenge, as most of their customers opt for disposable ones.

According to a 2019 Greenpeace Canada brand trash audit, Tim Hortons, Starbucks and McDonald's made the list of the top five companies behind branded plastic waste collected in nine beach and green space cleanups across the country.

Coffee cups and lids, collectively, were among the top five single-use plastic items most commonly found. Other top offenders included straws, stir sticks and food wrappers.

Tim Hortons, Starbucks and McDonald's each told CBC News they're working on greener solutions, such as adopting widely recyclable takeout materials.

Emily Alfred, a senior campaigner with the Toronto Environmental Alliance, said thatwhen it comes to coffee cups,the focus should be on reusables, because recyclable itemsstill create a bigger environmental footprint.

"It's still about using materials once and just recycling them," said Alfred. "We need to move toward the circular economy, where we conserve resources."

Difficult challenges

Tim Hortons agrees and said it's on a mission toconvince more customers to bring personalmugs. The chain plans to widely promote reusable cupsthis year, andrecently started selling ones priced as low as $1.99 each.

"If anyone's going to be able to change guest behaviour in terms of going with reusable cups and taking a more sustainable angle, it's going to be us,"said Mike Hancock, chief operating officer of Tim Hortons, in an interview.

However, the chain faces a difficult challenge. In 2013, Starbucks introduced a low-cost reusable cup, priced at $2 in Canada. But so far, it hasn't led to a seismic shift in customer behaviour.

Alfred saidto bring about effective change, governments need to introduce regulations.

"We kind of need every level of government to be moving on this as quickly as possible."

Some municipalities already have plans in motion. On Jan. 1, Vancouver banned foam cup and takeout containers, and will introduce a 25-cent charge for disposable paper cups next year. Toronto is also exploring ways to reduce single-use takeout materials.

The federal government has pledged to ban certain single-use plastics as early as next year. No word yet if disposable coffee cups will make the list.