Kickstart: McDonald's Australia trimming more plastics

Let's take a brief break from coronavirus coverage in today's Kickstart. But you can find updates elsewhere on Plastics News.

McDonald's isn't McLovin' plastics in Australia, where it will ditch all plastic cutlery from its restaurants by the end of 2020, switching to fiber-based cutlery.

McDonald's Australia said in a March 2 news release that the change will remove 585 metric tons of plastic per year from its restaurants. It comes on top of a previous decision to cut plastic straws from its outlets.

"By removing plastic straws and cutlery from McDonald's restaurants, we are continuing to reduce our environmental footprint and will be removing more than 860 tonnes of plastic from our system," Kylie Freeland, director of supply chain and sustainability at McDonald's Australia, said in the release.

The fast food outlet said that 85 percent of its packaging is now fiber-based.

New York's statewide plastic bag ban officially began on March 1, but shops caught providing bags won't receive any penalties for at least a month following a legal challenge to the law.

Politico has a story on how bodega owners and one bag maker joined forces on a request for a temporary restraining order on enforcing the law.

"Strict compliance with this law … would lead to consumers leaving the bodegas with their arms full of unwrapped goods," said Jim Featherstonhaugh, a lawyer for the groups challenging the ban, in Politico's story.

And in a bit of happy news from Satnam Singh and our sister publication Urethanes Technology International, Covestro AG rigid polyurethane insulation materials are making it easier for children at a rural school in Vyra, India.

The panels are being used at a school that needed a multipurpose hall where 80 girls could eat their lunches. Before the hall was built, the girls had to eat their lunches out in the open, a setting that was hot in the summer and very wet during monsoon season.

The new 800-square-foot building has a roof made of 73-millimeter panels and walls with 100-mm panels.