2023-06-11 21:17:02
From a distance, you might think that nothing has changed. The teenagers still hold in their greasy fingers the emblematic red cone with a yellow edge from which a few soggy fries protrude. However, at the McDo on boulevard Diderot, in the 12th arrondissement in Paris, all the cardboard tableware has been abandoned.
Goodbye boxes of nuggets, bags of fries and white and yellow cups: make way for the brand new reusable table service. Customers have not finished hesitating in front of the sorting bins since these trays are now made of titanium, a plastic that is resistant to washing.
Since January 1, disposable tableware for on-site consumption is prohibited in all fast food establishments with more than 20 seats. But no sign was in the nails on this date. McDonald’s, which has invested 100 million euros and recruited one to two additional full-time jobs per restaurant to comply with the rules, claims to have made the transition of 1,450 of its 1,530 establishments for the moment.
Fines, “supreme threat”
Starbucks has been ready since April 1, Burger King declares 99% of its establishments up to date as of May 30, when KFC will have transformed only 62% of its 335 restaurants by the end of June. Progress closely followed by Bérangère Couillard, Secretary of State for Ecological Transition in charge of the file.
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Consultations, checks, but also legal reminders and even fines: for six months, the government has been putting pressure on the brands forced to make public their action plan for the deployment of washing solutions, site by site. “It is not an end in itself to impose fines, it is the supreme threat for those who do not play the game”, one explains in the entourage of the Secretary of State.
“You can’t go faster than the music”
“We can’t go faster than the music, especially when it doesn’t depend on us,” defends McDonald’s, which began writing this new score in 2021. For the American brand, the latest difficulties are linked to the lack of space for the installation of dishwashers and the difficulty of obtaining the necessary building permits.
As for KFC, the firm takes refuge behind deadlines exceeded by their suppliers, promising however to be operational before October. Meanwhile, the chain’s staff met in a Parisian restaurant admit to being “in the dark” about the deployment, but attending a daily “ball of technicians” who came to install pipes and machinery to wash dishes. The ministry plans to tighten controls from this month, focusing on the most recalcitrant establishments in June.
What do customers think of this revolution? Those who call themselves “green”, like this German tourist crossed in a Five Guys fast food restaurant, welcome this revolution on the set: “In Germany, there is a lot more plastic, we should take an example from France. When others don’t even pay attention. Like Rémy, 27, seated at the McDonald’s on the Champs-Élysées who lapidarily decrees: “It doesn’t change anything”, neither for his experience nor for the planet.
Elena and Irene hadn’t even noticed that the traditional clear plastic cups of their Starbucks Frappuccinos had been swapped for simple ridged glasses, devoid of any reference to the brand. The two Italians passing through Paris still marvel at the sober and chic containers that make their lacquered nails tinkle.
“The one who realizes the change, it’s not really the customer, it’s the owner who says to himself: yesterday I was throwing away a million cardboard pots of sauce a day, today, zero”, explains Nicolas, 35, hired by the Parisian fast food brand Burgers and Fries to rethink the management of the organization. He keeps in mind the government’s ambition: to reduce annual waste from fast food restaurants by more than 130,000 tonnes.
“Disposable is more expensive on all counts”
An ecological issue, but also an economic one, which also pushes small fast-food restaurants to comply with the new rules even if they have less than 20 seats. “With soaring cardboard prices and the increasingly strict ban on plastic, disposables are more expensive on all counts,” says Assan, owner of the kebab le Spécial, in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis). ).
Before, he paid 20 euros for 3,000 plastic bags. Today, there are barely 500 for the same price. Trays, for their part, have seen their price quadruple since 2020, going from 4 cents per unit to more than 16 cents. No more need for small pots for the sauce or trays for the fries, a simple paper on the tray and you’re done. As for cutlery, “the most ecological and the most economical is when there is none! »
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