McDonald's Faces Fines Over Disposable Cups in Dutch Restaurants

McDonald's Netherlands has been hit with a penalty notice for violating the country's rule on reusable packaging. The order came after environmental NGO Fair Resource Foundation filed an enforcement request with the Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate (ILT), alleging breaches of a rule that requires hospitality businesses to serve dine-in food and drinks in reusable packaging or high-quality recycled and recyclable PET.

The rule, which went into effect in January 2024, aims to reduce single-use plastic. McDonald's was accused of putting drinks and McFlurry ice creams in single-use cardboard cups with a plastic coating and charging a €0.15 surcharge per cup.

According to the Fair Resource Foundation, reusable cups at McDonald's Netherlands get used only 3.3 times on average before they end up in the trash. The ILT inspected dozens of McDonald's restaurants and found multiple violations. As a result, the chain has been ordered to serve reusable packaging from January 5, 2027, or face fines of €625,000 per week, up to a maximum of €3,750,000.

McDonald's Netherlands responded by stating that it is working towards the same goal as the government and supports the single-use plastics legislation. However, Chloé Schwizgebel, a project coordinator at the Fair Resource Foundation, argued that McDonald's should have made this change more than two years ago and that the switch still hasn't shown up in practice.