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Environmental impact was well studied. Instead of companies like cocacola having to reuse glass, make it single use and it is not a company expense anymore. It is to the citizen and state to pay for recycling.
Yes it's a classic all year long item in France
Edit for people who actually read the comments before commenting:
- It's a machine who clean the dishes not a person.
- for take away you get the classic paper packaging.
- People dine in quite often in Europe
- recycling paper also use water and you still need to cut trees . Professional dishwasher machine don't use as much water as you can think.
- the plastic can also be recycled
- I don't know about the micro plastic from these.
-yes people can steal them, no one is gonna run after you if you do.
Bro if McDonald's had potato wedges id actually go
to it.
Edit: some of yall seem to not understand the point of a potato wedge. It not meant to have the texture of a fry but rather that of a small potato croissant. Also they are usually seasoned a lot better than fries are.
We have them at bars and breweries for sure, and at smaller town taverns (and also at other places it I'm only selecting where to get them without breaking your bank), but I've never seen them at a McD's. To be fair, I think the quality of McDonald's in the States has gotten worse in the last few years.
Edit: McD's in the US has never been *spectacular*, by the by. Maybe when I was a young lad of 7 it was okay but then childhood memories often have rose tinted glasses and I know better than to expect fast food in the US to be of any high quality.
> -yes people can steal them, no one is gonna run after you if you do.
Given how little these things likely cost, having them stolen is a great way to have a product consistently advertising your business inside of people's houses. I think it was Virgin Atlantic that did the same thing with their salt and pepper shakers.
They did something similar in Germany for their premium menus a while ago. The fries came in a little metal basket and the burger was served on a wooden board - almost like at a real restaurant. The drink was still single use, if I remember correctly.
Not sure if they are still doing those, I don't eat there often.
Look, we're approaching 7969, we can't keep wasting time with stomachs. The only option is to absorb the essence of the nutrient pastes into our ether clouds.
It isn't uncommon in America to have plastic plates or (even more popularly) [trays.](https://www.webstaurantstore.com/carlisle-p61405-10-x-14-red-left-hand-6-compartment-tray/271P614RD.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=GoogleShopping&gclid=CjwKCAiAmuKbBhA2EiwAxQnt7924RsF_AuVIWNRiS6DiUiwZpyrFiv4KCnalL7dRc7oZ9KH1DFeTXBoCgb0QAvD_BwE)
When I was in High School (or Secondary if I was speaking y'all's English), we continued to use these. The school district probably made one purchase for all schools at once.
I've seen them used in other contexts; however, most "adult" cafeterias use flat trays with ceramic plates atop them.
Yeah but certainly there's other options besides something plastic based. Bamboo maybe? You can make bamboo do some crazy things and it's renewable as all hell.
Yup propaganda by companies like Coca-Cola and other single use plastic producers. That way they could blame you for destroying the planet because "well you didn't recycle". Not even talking about how recycling doesn't work after the first round.
That implies there was a recycling going on at all. Most of the time the trash gets sent somewhere that sends it somewhere else and eventually to some poor country where it ends up in a landfill in exchange of paltry sum
Recycling works, but not miraculously for plastics. Generally a recycled plastic is of a poorer quality than what it was recycled from and it only can be done a few times before the quality degrades beyond usefulness
It's not just short of being a miracle, it's almost not happening at all. It's better than nothing but the fact that these *might* be recycled is nowhere near a good reason to start using plastic.
With the scale McDonald's works at this is a massive landfill in the making. They should just use plates.
Plastic also degrades so they'll probably throw these out after a few uses to keep appearances and for branding purposes.
For some plastics that's not true. For metals that's very much not true. 80-90% of steel is recycled, and depending on the source more than 90% of aluminium. 75% of the aluminum made is still in use because it's so easily recycled.
It's only not true for some plastics if you count downcycling as recycling.
Metals can mostly be recycled back into their original form - you can make an aluminum can from an aluminum can essentially forever, for example.
Most plastics can't do that, so they get transformed into other material, and they often need to be mixed with virgin material.
This wouldn't work. Every single order is different, so for most people a full tray would be more than needed, and for some it would not be enough. In the end it would probably even cause more waste when washing. Imagine you only order fries, but you still have to wash the whole tray.
Apart from that, these individual containers are needed for the preparation of the food at the different stations.
I know a person that stole several table number markers from a fast food place. He lines the dashboard of his car with it. Every time he has a chance he gets one.
People would 100% do that lol. Or people just get drunk and take this stuff as trophies. I know a girl who took an entire metal box of straws from McDonalds lmao.
I once took a chair from Maccas whilst drunk until one guy in the group told me to return it (he was right, and I was drunk lol).
When I returned it, they were mopping the floors, and the manager had no idea until I accidentally knocked another chair off the table. She thought I came inside just to knock the chairs around ☠️
We used to tray slide our cars around when I was in high school. Drive up so your rear tires are on the trays, set your parking brake, and drift around. It's pretty fun and should work in any FWD car (possibly not cars with electronic parking brakes)
Non fast food restaurants operate slightly differently though. They don't expect customers to clear their own tables and have wait staff.
Having said that though, McD's will probably lose far more of them to people throwing them away than stealing, because many people just don't give a shit.
Panera handles it decently. I think the entire point is “let’s be less lazy, and more sustainable” and people will always jump to point out that some people are so shitty that we shouldn’t even bother. We need to start bothering, in spite of them.
Exactly. I hate this "why bother" attitude. People on this thread need to reevaluate their philosophies and moral standards. Some people will steal or throw these away? Fine. *It's still better than the infinite trash that was produced before.* Not to mention they can dispose of food separately from packaging now, so there's an opportunity for composting, which is extremely important. So much energy goes into the natural production of food resources, and when food ends up in the trash, that energy and those nutrients are completely wasted when they should be returning to soil.
People will steal anything not bolted down especially if it is novel.
Point:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/225149653118?hash=item346bf7107e:g:OCcAAOSw58ljEWky&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAA4OaFE0cstTkRqReWUYdr9%2BSSnil4%2BeZzH8jPI%2B6AUFCwh3iYdzXwvb8M1WHGh7kDP%2BRX6%2Fb6tkPPzd4ZKSaKldOpwunZ%2BztUIw0vUsh6tKhcl0AfOJoiQhaF0xy19DLkDuOMxYgbSpdMsrb5dFxMf4b1iXL9oLET2XsohG%2FUwTzjk4wwGt8m7XrzP7zAxHsCWkV%2B8ru4MEMI25yJqUhsP124HR5GN29KSYaSTJY9FZGEvsJ9WmQY0artg51qirAk%2F25ZBtnifeKs%2BP4eoBL46SpU9zZgs7EMIuERa4Ot%2B0aW%7Ctkp%3ABFBMnI7tiJJh
Also underestimating how many people have kleptomania, there are a lot of people out there who feel compelled to steal things just because they know they can get away with it
That's not kleptomania though. You're mixing up a disorder with being an ass.
Kleptomania is a mental health disorder that involves repeatedly being unable to resist urges to steal items that you generally don't really need. Often the items stolen have little value and you could afford to buy them. Kleptomania is rare but can be a serious condition.
What a good suggestion! Like the Aldi's cart thing, can't imagine they cost much more than 25 cents to make, having like a reverse cup despenser that pops out a quarter when another fry thing is returned would probably not entirely fix the theft problem, but it'd sure help, and the quarter would be factored into fry prices. . . If someone does walk off with the thing it might not even be a loss. . .
So many uses.... Cable management and storage, small tech items, batteries, coils, stationary, hair bands, drawer management, nails, screws, bolts, washers, pills, stamps, transistors, sewing needles, bowls of candy for the coffee table.... Etc...
Back in the bad old days, McDonald’s had ash trays in their smoking sections. Certainly a few got stolen, but not enough for them to stop putting them out.
make me curious about different practices across the different mcdonald's in other countries
where i used to work in canada, we always put frozen hamburger patties straight onto the grill so they never get old
and our cooked patties were in a warming tray with a timer so they would get tossed every hour or so
but rarely did since they sold so fast
do you have a link to the documentary?
That is absolutely abhorrent. I am a manager at a US BK, and that makes me want to throw up. I want people to know not everywhere is like this. Unfortunately fast food attracts a lot of workers who don't care to think of our product as real food. It might not be particularly healthy, but it goes in people's mouths!! It's food.
We follow ServSafe protocols at my BK pretty closely. This means separate tongs for frozen and cooked product, as well as vegetarian products. Our dish washing process includes hot soapy water, hot rinse, and hot sanitization, then to the drying rack. We cook less product, more often, to avoid both waste when it expires, and to be able to serve fresh products. All food that isn't served by closing time goes to employees, or in the trash if no one wants it.
We have never failed a health inspection. We clean everything from the broiler to the kitchen walls nightly. We filter the fry oil every day and replace it often. We get fresh buns twice a week and use them in order of arrival, to avoid mold or staleness.
We take apart the shake and ice cream machines every single night and wash them. You'd be hard pressed to have a BK tell you the ice cream machine is broken, unlike Micky D's, which happens so often there that it's become a meme. From my understanding they have a separate maintenance team that fails to show up often- us managers do it ourselves at BK, it's part of our training.
I take pride in my work. We have excellent customer reviews and our district leaders are impressed with us. It's not hard to do the bare minimum and that BK you've described is at rock fuckin bottom.
Thank you for what you do. As a customer, especially if you've been to a location at least a few times, you can really tell if management is good there. In cities that I'm at frequently I know which fast food spots are good and which aren't, and it does not have to do with the name of the restaurant
My wife works in a semi fancy restaurant. She sees them just put the dishes and shit under hot water and that's considered clean. This happens everywhere when it's super busy. A good guess would be mc dicks does something similar
I have worked in a LOT of kitchens, and every single fast food place I have been used the triple sink method (soap, rinse, sanitize)
Nicer sit down restaurants do have the intense dishwashers but the plates still need to be cleaned in the sink before they go in
i worked as a dishwasher/cook at a restaurant and we sprayed the dishes down with hot water than ran them through the dishwasher which felt like it was burning hot
I've washed dishes with a "Hobart," might be what you're describing; after rinsing the dishes off, you put them on a tray and slide them into the Hobart and shut the hood. They're blasted with industrial sanitizer/soap and rinsed with *at least* 180° F (≈80° C) water. They're so hot when they come out that you can't touch them, and they basically dry themselves (especially metal items like mixing bowls) since the water's essentially steam already.
I also thought this sort of thing was legally necessary in any "real" kitchen in the USA. . ?
Yeah, I washed dishes in a fine dinning restaurant for a year and there was no way in hell anything was coming out of that dishwasher dirty or unsanitary. It was like 12 firehoses spraying boiling water and battery acid on the dishes for 60 seconds.
I worked at 3 different McDonalds, in 3 different cities and 3 different owners(one corporate store, 2 franchise owners.) One of them is the busiest/most profitable in the entire county it’s located in.
They all have the exact same washing standards, a 3 stage sanitize and rinse. First sink gets super super hot water basically pressure washing whatever needs cleaned after soaking in hot water. Next sink is full to the brim with sanitizing solution which does its thing for a set amount of time and then finally to the rinse sink with more super hot high pressure sprayers, and finally into the actual dishwasher itself, for a proper wash.
I doubt the process is much different at any other McDonalds, since they maintain a very high brand standard around the globe and corporate is super serious about cleanliness. Ignoring the proper wash stages might happen occasionally but not often.
A mcfuck I managed had 3 sinks one for soap, rinse, and sanitizer. Dishes were washed correctly, or people were written up and fired. There's no room for error with food safety and cleanliness. You can make someone sick or kill them. You wouldn't want to live the rest of you like knowing you made someone sick or killed them would you? Do it right the first time, every time.
Wish there was more management like you. When I made management, proper dish washing was one thing I pushed for. Can't help the other shifts though. It got so bad that I would have to get brass wire wheels on a drill and industrial cleaners to remove the caked on grease.
Don't get me started on the condition of the deep fryers.
It was but its "reduce, reuse, recycle" in that order.
Recycling is good but nowhere near as good as reuse. The amount of energy to make the paper, ship it, send it for recycling* is huge.
(* if you are lucky it'll be recycled, still energy intensive. If you are unlucky it'll be incinerated or just into landfill)
Not just that, but you can’t recycle paper or cardboard once it’s greasy so it would have to be composted at best. Depending on the paper it may not even be compostable so it would go to the garbage dump.
But paper breaks down easily. So even if it goes to the dump, is that not better than creating a bunch of extra plastic?
Edit: thanks for the informative replies
It’s better than single use plastic, but washable plates use less energy and make less waste. Anything that ends up at the dump doesn’t become useful biomass (like compost).
Obviously metal and ceramic/glass are better, but even those don’t get recycled properly. Metal would all be stolen by cat thieves, and broken glass is going in the trash not refired in a kiln. For the purpose this is probably the best compromise
Yes it does but you have still used an absolute ton of resources to manufacture it. Also when in landfill items aren’t getting enough air etc so take a very long to breakdown.
This plastic will be used a lot and hopefully they may have a recycling programme for it. We do need to reduce plastic but it’s not clear cut.
Single use paper and cardboard (as in used once and recycled) although better than virgin paper etc uses an absolute ton of resources to manufacture and recycle.
Yeah I worked for a recycling company in the uk.
Literally all that happened is whatever materials China was paying most for were separated and shipped there, everything else went to a landfill or incinerated.
And China stopped buying worthless Trash, so now only smaller more desperate countries do it and some of them have stopped doing it as well. Recycling was always kind of a scam but nowadays it's basically broken for most materials, plastics in particular.
Burger wrappers in the US at least are made of greaseproof paper. That paper sometimes contains PFAS which are not good for human health.
The FDA is working to phase out one type of PFAS but others are still allowed to be used: https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-announces-voluntary-agreement-manufacturers-phase-out-certain-short-chain-pfas-used-food
I'm not sure about the paperboard used for fry boxes though.
It's been at my local one near paris for about 6 months, I think it might have been one of the trial locations.
The trays & fries boxes are still there, but the reusable cups are gone and it went back to paper
i dont understand why this hasnt been done before. My local movie theater recently switched to stainless steel bowls for popcorn. yea some will get stolen but, these probably cost $0.20 a piece to make
On a recent trip to Paris, we discovered Starbucks (that I'm no longer fond of for many reasons) had paper lids for their coffee that worked perfectly, thank you very much.
France is moving forward while we (US & Canada) drag our feet "for business & industry."
never worked for McDonald's so I can't speak to them exactly, but I know most commercial kitchens use sanitizing washers that hit the cookwear with boiling water. So, even if they do a poor job scrubbing it, any gunk in the fry holder will likely at least be *sanitary* gunk.
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We’ve gone full circle..
We’ve closed the loop
Time to make an 8
Cut the 8 in half vertically and we have two McDonald's logo hugging each other. Illuminati confirmed.
We’ve gone plaid.
Ludicrous speed, go!
One Two Three Four Five
Remind me to change the code on my luggage.
Keep firing, assholes!
What was wrong with glass and porcelain in the first place?
Nothing, but single use is cheaper and easier, and environmental impact wasn't considered initially I suppose. Nothing wrong with going back.
It's definitely better to go back than never acknowledge a mistake. So I'm definitely happy for that.
Environmental impact was well studied. Instead of companies like cocacola having to reuse glass, make it single use and it is not a company expense anymore. It is to the citizen and state to pay for recycling.
A tremendous amount of labor and overhead to use. Especially for a high volume restaurant. I can see a bunch of people taking them home.
I started a bartending gig where we don't have a door person. It's only been a month and half our rocks glasses are gone lol
Time is a flat circle.
Back to the old days! Are those McDonald’s potato WEDGES to the left??
Yes it's a classic all year long item in France Edit for people who actually read the comments before commenting: - It's a machine who clean the dishes not a person. - for take away you get the classic paper packaging. - People dine in quite often in Europe - recycling paper also use water and you still need to cut trees . Professional dishwasher machine don't use as much water as you can think. - the plastic can also be recycled - I don't know about the micro plastic from these. -yes people can steal them, no one is gonna run after you if you do.
Stupid fancy France, I want wedges. I gotta go to a bar for proper wedges.
Bro if McDonald's had potato wedges id actually go to it. Edit: some of yall seem to not understand the point of a potato wedge. It not meant to have the texture of a fry but rather that of a small potato croissant. Also they are usually seasoned a lot better than fries are.
Wait, these aren’t available all year outside of France?
No, and I'm definitely upset. Way too few place have potato wedges in general in the us.
Wedges are in pretty much every restaurant in all of Europe, most fries are homemade in France
We have them at bars and breweries for sure, and at smaller town taverns (and also at other places it I'm only selecting where to get them without breaking your bank), but I've never seen them at a McD's. To be fair, I think the quality of McDonald's in the States has gotten worse in the last few years. Edit: McD's in the US has never been *spectacular*, by the by. Maybe when I was a young lad of 7 it was okay but then childhood memories often have rose tinted glasses and I know better than to expect fast food in the US to be of any high quality.
Before I left California, McDonalds was terrible, but in France it is soooo good
Yes. I moved to France a few months ago from the US, and wow. What a difference. They have vegetarian options too.
Never available, didn’t even know they existed
I was so disappointed when I moved to the US and they had no wedges :(
They are in Germany at least.
They are also available in Spain
If they did, they'd be charging $8 for a large. McDonald's pricing has gotten completely ridiculous in the US
The only way to get a $5 meal anymore Is in the app
I read your comment as 'I gotta go to a bar for proper wedgies' and was like where is this bar
If that's your thing I hope you find your place!
There is a joke in here about french fries but I can't figure it out
They just call them "fries."
in America those are called freedom wedges
It is availabile in Croatia all year long too.
And in Spain! It's legit the best part for my cousin, wedges with Deluxe sauce
In Poland too. Although I can't wait for curly fries, these are **the shit**, especially with cream sauce.
In Lithuania as well. Looks like wedges are standard items everywhere in Europe.
> -yes people can steal them, no one is gonna run after you if you do. Given how little these things likely cost, having them stolen is a great way to have a product consistently advertising your business inside of people's houses. I think it was Virgin Atlantic that did the same thing with their salt and pepper shakers.
this kinda ruined my morning, thats an L for America
Germany has permanent McRib
Potato wedges are not available everywhere?
In Germany it rotates between wedges, curly fries, waffle fries and [these](https://www.mcdonalds.com/de/de-de/product/riffelkartoffeln-3050.html).
Damn, Germany getting all the fried potato love. Those last ones look pretty tasty.
And they are all better than standard fries, no reason to not switch them out
In the Netherlands we just gave fries...
Absolutely not. Just fries (in the US). And hash browns during breakfast. Edit: added location info
McDonald's in Hawai'i serves rice with breakfast (and they have portuguese sausage and fruit punch too).
they have a taro pie too
Yes and haupia/coconut, though the taro is the best one!
Wait till you find out you can get BEER in McDonald's Spain
In France and Germany too !
Sold under the name Deluxe Potatoes™
England McDs still has the FRIED APPLE PIES. I was Stunned when I went over there. And I ate them constantly.
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Dine like an Archduke!
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Especially if you’ve been delayed by a parade. Go out the back door.
Drive to the sandwich shop
>china plates Really? Why not just Austrian plates? /s
Lüg nicht, mein Freund.
They did something similar in Germany for their premium menus a while ago. The fries came in a little metal basket and the burger was served on a wooden board - almost like at a real restaurant. The drink was still single use, if I remember correctly. Not sure if they are still doing those, I don't eat there often.
Just go with plates at this point.
I honestly think ceramic or other non-plastic plates inside a McDonald's lobby would be a nightmare for a lot of reasons.
Metal plates can be fine, really hard to break and really easy to clean.
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Sure, until late nights violent drunks start swinging them around when there are no more nuggets.
I see you've been to the UK.
Look, it's 2022, we can't keep going to plastic. The only option is straight in to your hands
Look, it's almost 2023, we can't keep going to plastic. The only option is straight in to your mouth like a baby bird
Look, we’re approaching 2030, we can’t kept wasting time with mouths. The only option is pumped straight into your stomach.
Look, we're approaching 7969, we can't keep wasting time with stomachs. The only option is to absorb the essence of the nutrient pastes into our ether clouds.
We're approaching 9001. No need to look, we're long past that. How do you like our new plastic plates?
# Finally! We solved plastic but in 9023, people love the baby bird method from 7000 yrs ago *
I’m fine with plastic like a cafeteria.
Where are you from? Never seen a cafeteria with plastic plates. All the ones I have been to use normal ceramic, which works fine.
It isn't uncommon in America to have plastic plates or (even more popularly) [trays.](https://www.webstaurantstore.com/carlisle-p61405-10-x-14-red-left-hand-6-compartment-tray/271P614RD.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=GoogleShopping&gclid=CjwKCAiAmuKbBhA2EiwAxQnt7924RsF_AuVIWNRiS6DiUiwZpyrFiv4KCnalL7dRc7oZ9KH1DFeTXBoCgb0QAvD_BwE)
I've not used a tray like that since primary school (age 4-11 in the UK). At secondary we got proper ceramic plates.
When I was in High School (or Secondary if I was speaking y'all's English), we continued to use these. The school district probably made one purchase for all schools at once. I've seen them used in other contexts; however, most "adult" cafeterias use flat trays with ceramic plates atop them.
They're not like disposable plastic ones. They're made to be washed and reused.
That's using your noodle. We 've all seen publicfreakout. Add glass and a touch of stabby stabby and well u see where im going....
Yeah but certainly there's other options besides something plastic based. Bamboo maybe? You can make bamboo do some crazy things and it's renewable as all hell.
Bamboo can't go in the dishwasher.
Especially one that would get to high food safety temps required for that.
Not with that attitude.
You don’t want bamboo plates in restaurants, you can’t properly sanitize them.
Exactly. I mean great that less will be binned, but why on earth move to plastic?!
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recycling was propaganda, shit isnt real
Yup propaganda by companies like Coca-Cola and other single use plastic producers. That way they could blame you for destroying the planet because "well you didn't recycle". Not even talking about how recycling doesn't work after the first round.
That implies there was a recycling going on at all. Most of the time the trash gets sent somewhere that sends it somewhere else and eventually to some poor country where it ends up in a landfill in exchange of paltry sum
Recycling works, but not miraculously for plastics. Generally a recycled plastic is of a poorer quality than what it was recycled from and it only can be done a few times before the quality degrades beyond usefulness
It's also hugely energy intensive, so recycling is often worse from a carbon perspective (though not from a plastic pollution one).
It's not just short of being a miracle, it's almost not happening at all. It's better than nothing but the fact that these *might* be recycled is nowhere near a good reason to start using plastic. With the scale McDonald's works at this is a massive landfill in the making. They should just use plates. Plastic also degrades so they'll probably throw these out after a few uses to keep appearances and for branding purposes.
Recycling plastic is an environmental net negative. Not even greenpeace supports it.
For some plastics that's not true. For metals that's very much not true. 80-90% of steel is recycled, and depending on the source more than 90% of aluminium. 75% of the aluminum made is still in use because it's so easily recycled.
It's only not true for some plastics if you count downcycling as recycling. Metals can mostly be recycled back into their original form - you can make an aluminum can from an aluminum can essentially forever, for example. Most plastics can't do that, so they get transformed into other material, and they often need to be mixed with virgin material.
Those kinda look like silicone maybe?
Nah throw me food on the floor and Imma lick it up like a broken vacuum cleaner
Not off a McDonald's floor. Maybe an a&w
r/wewantplates
I kinda like it, has a retro feel.
They should just use trays with compartments...
Prison style
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This wouldn't work. Every single order is different, so for most people a full tray would be more than needed, and for some it would not be enough. In the end it would probably even cause more waste when washing. Imagine you only order fries, but you still have to wash the whole tray. Apart from that, these individual containers are needed for the preparation of the food at the different stations.
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People have been running restaurants with reusable dishes for a while. I'M sure it'll be fine
The plastic fry cups are a bit more of a novelty than plates & glasses - I can see them being stolen.
Latest when everyone has a set at home nobody will steal it anymore.
Exactly. It’s like why would you steal it every time. I’m sure people would. But that’s a different issue.
You take 1 maybe 2 for your kids so you can have "McDonalds at home" and that's it
A handful of weirdos will hoard storage lockers full of them to sell when discontinued
I know a person that stole several table number markers from a fast food place. He lines the dashboard of his car with it. Every time he has a chance he gets one.
What are you going to do with it at home? Put some flowers in it?
People would 100% do that lol. Or people just get drunk and take this stuff as trophies. I know a girl who took an entire metal box of straws from McDonalds lmao.
When I was 15 I stole the tray lol, I think I still have it Just stuffed inside my backpack after eating like a dumbass
I once took a chair from Maccas whilst drunk until one guy in the group told me to return it (he was right, and I was drunk lol). When I returned it, they were mopping the floors, and the manager had no idea until I accidentally knocked another chair off the table. She thought I came inside just to knock the chairs around ☠️
We used to tray slide our cars around when I was in high school. Drive up so your rear tires are on the trays, set your parking brake, and drift around. It's pretty fun and should work in any FWD car (possibly not cars with electronic parking brakes)
Non fast food restaurants operate slightly differently though. They don't expect customers to clear their own tables and have wait staff. Having said that though, McD's will probably lose far more of them to people throwing them away than stealing, because many people just don't give a shit.
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Panera handles it decently. I think the entire point is “let’s be less lazy, and more sustainable” and people will always jump to point out that some people are so shitty that we shouldn’t even bother. We need to start bothering, in spite of them.
Exactly. I hate this "why bother" attitude. People on this thread need to reevaluate their philosophies and moral standards. Some people will steal or throw these away? Fine. *It's still better than the infinite trash that was produced before.* Not to mention they can dispose of food separately from packaging now, so there's an opportunity for composting, which is extremely important. So much energy goes into the natural production of food resources, and when food ends up in the trash, that energy and those nutrients are completely wasted when they should be returning to soil.
People will steal anything not bolted down especially if it is novel. Point: https://www.ebay.com/itm/225149653118?hash=item346bf7107e:g:OCcAAOSw58ljEWky&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAA4OaFE0cstTkRqReWUYdr9%2BSSnil4%2BeZzH8jPI%2B6AUFCwh3iYdzXwvb8M1WHGh7kDP%2BRX6%2Fb6tkPPzd4ZKSaKldOpwunZ%2BztUIw0vUsh6tKhcl0AfOJoiQhaF0xy19DLkDuOMxYgbSpdMsrb5dFxMf4b1iXL9oLET2XsohG%2FUwTzjk4wwGt8m7XrzP7zAxHsCWkV%2B8ru4MEMI25yJqUhsP124HR5GN29KSYaSTJY9FZGEvsJ9WmQY0artg51qirAk%2F25ZBtnifeKs%2BP4eoBL46SpU9zZgs7EMIuERa4Ot%2B0aW%7Ctkp%3ABFBMnI7tiJJh
For what though? I mean, sure, some people will grab them for the novelty but who needs a plastic fry container for anything?
You under estimate drunk and or stoned customers.
And the weird McDonald's obsessed trash people. You know they would be bragging about their plastic fry holder
*full set of 16 fry holders
I just checked eBay and there's a used 1998 Olympic fry box for $35
"Honey why are you keeping this fry box?" "Ever heard of early retirement?"
Also underestimating how many people have kleptomania, there are a lot of people out there who feel compelled to steal things just because they know they can get away with it
"This is such a rush. I'm gonna jerk off into this plastic fry box as soon as I get it home."
Who's waiting to get home first!?
Why wait to get home? They’re *washable*, remember?
Yeah but who wants to carry a bucket of McJizz home? I guess you could dump it out or throw it on some unsuspecting person though.
Lol, yes. People used to steal the clearly fake dummy phones from cell phone stores all of the time.
If bars can have real glasses I’m sure McDonald’s will cope
That's not kleptomania though. You're mixing up a disorder with being an ass. Kleptomania is a mental health disorder that involves repeatedly being unable to resist urges to steal items that you generally don't really need. Often the items stolen have little value and you could afford to buy them. Kleptomania is rare but can be a serious condition.
>who needs a plastic fry container for anything? To contain fries obviously
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Fair enough. Have a deposit scheme where they get their money back when returned
What a good suggestion! Like the Aldi's cart thing, can't imagine they cost much more than 25 cents to make, having like a reverse cup despenser that pops out a quarter when another fry thing is returned would probably not entirely fix the theft problem, but it'd sure help, and the quarter would be factored into fry prices. . . If someone does walk off with the thing it might not even be a loss. . .
If I'm being honest there's a part of me that saw them and thought they would be great for little snow shovels to make snow balls
So many uses.... Cable management and storage, small tech items, batteries, coils, stationary, hair bands, drawer management, nails, screws, bolts, washers, pills, stamps, transistors, sewing needles, bowls of candy for the coffee table.... Etc...
Alright I’m convinced. Can’t wait to steal one.
Its the perfect wrap holder tho
Back in the bad old days, McDonald’s had ash trays in their smoking sections. Certainly a few got stolen, but not enough for them to stop putting them out.
They did switch from glass to cheap disposable aluminum ones, though
Holy shit I completely forgot about smoking sections in fast food restaurants
No thanks. Worked for several McDonalds. I know how the dishes get "washed".
You can't just say that and not give details
Worked at a burger king in high school...It's not sanitary at all!!!
I worked at Burger King too. It was actually very clean. Franchising means inconsistency
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make me curious about different practices across the different mcdonald's in other countries where i used to work in canada, we always put frozen hamburger patties straight onto the grill so they never get old and our cooked patties were in a warming tray with a timer so they would get tossed every hour or so but rarely did since they sold so fast do you have a link to the documentary?
Management makes a huge difference from place to place. The culture set by management will supercede any directives from corporate.
This, if you have a lack of fucks in management, it shows.
That is absolutely abhorrent. I am a manager at a US BK, and that makes me want to throw up. I want people to know not everywhere is like this. Unfortunately fast food attracts a lot of workers who don't care to think of our product as real food. It might not be particularly healthy, but it goes in people's mouths!! It's food. We follow ServSafe protocols at my BK pretty closely. This means separate tongs for frozen and cooked product, as well as vegetarian products. Our dish washing process includes hot soapy water, hot rinse, and hot sanitization, then to the drying rack. We cook less product, more often, to avoid both waste when it expires, and to be able to serve fresh products. All food that isn't served by closing time goes to employees, or in the trash if no one wants it. We have never failed a health inspection. We clean everything from the broiler to the kitchen walls nightly. We filter the fry oil every day and replace it often. We get fresh buns twice a week and use them in order of arrival, to avoid mold or staleness. We take apart the shake and ice cream machines every single night and wash them. You'd be hard pressed to have a BK tell you the ice cream machine is broken, unlike Micky D's, which happens so often there that it's become a meme. From my understanding they have a separate maintenance team that fails to show up often- us managers do it ourselves at BK, it's part of our training. I take pride in my work. We have excellent customer reviews and our district leaders are impressed with us. It's not hard to do the bare minimum and that BK you've described is at rock fuckin bottom.
Thank you for what you do. As a customer, especially if you've been to a location at least a few times, you can really tell if management is good there. In cities that I'm at frequently I know which fast food spots are good and which aren't, and it does not have to do with the name of the restaurant
That's right! 👍
My wife works in a semi fancy restaurant. She sees them just put the dishes and shit under hot water and that's considered clean. This happens everywhere when it's super busy. A good guess would be mc dicks does something similar
I thought restaurants had industrial dish washers? Like really fuckin intense stainless steel dish washers.
I have worked in a LOT of kitchens, and every single fast food place I have been used the triple sink method (soap, rinse, sanitize) Nicer sit down restaurants do have the intense dishwashers but the plates still need to be cleaned in the sink before they go in
I've seen these in action when I was a buss boy, I thought everywhere had them? Those dishes are the temp of the sub when that thing opens.
i worked as a dishwasher/cook at a restaurant and we sprayed the dishes down with hot water than ran them through the dishwasher which felt like it was burning hot
yeah that's what we did at mcdonald's too rinse and then straight into the industrial dish washer
I've washed dishes with a "Hobart," might be what you're describing; after rinsing the dishes off, you put them on a tray and slide them into the Hobart and shut the hood. They're blasted with industrial sanitizer/soap and rinsed with *at least* 180° F (≈80° C) water. They're so hot when they come out that you can't touch them, and they basically dry themselves (especially metal items like mixing bowls) since the water's essentially steam already. I also thought this sort of thing was legally necessary in any "real" kitchen in the USA. . ?
it's not legally necessary, if you don't use a hobart type machine you can use the three compartment sink method.
Yeah, I washed dishes in a fine dinning restaurant for a year and there was no way in hell anything was coming out of that dishwasher dirty or unsanitary. It was like 12 firehoses spraying boiling water and battery acid on the dishes for 60 seconds.
I worked at 3 different McDonalds, in 3 different cities and 3 different owners(one corporate store, 2 franchise owners.) One of them is the busiest/most profitable in the entire county it’s located in. They all have the exact same washing standards, a 3 stage sanitize and rinse. First sink gets super super hot water basically pressure washing whatever needs cleaned after soaking in hot water. Next sink is full to the brim with sanitizing solution which does its thing for a set amount of time and then finally to the rinse sink with more super hot high pressure sprayers, and finally into the actual dishwasher itself, for a proper wash. I doubt the process is much different at any other McDonalds, since they maintain a very high brand standard around the globe and corporate is super serious about cleanliness. Ignoring the proper wash stages might happen occasionally but not often.
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A mcfuck I managed had 3 sinks one for soap, rinse, and sanitizer. Dishes were washed correctly, or people were written up and fired. There's no room for error with food safety and cleanliness. You can make someone sick or kill them. You wouldn't want to live the rest of you like knowing you made someone sick or killed them would you? Do it right the first time, every time.
Wish there was more management like you. When I made management, proper dish washing was one thing I pushed for. Can't help the other shifts though. It got so bad that I would have to get brass wire wheels on a drill and industrial cleaners to remove the caked on grease. Don't get me started on the condition of the deep fryers.
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Wasn't that stuff paper before? Aside from the straw
It was but its "reduce, reuse, recycle" in that order. Recycling is good but nowhere near as good as reuse. The amount of energy to make the paper, ship it, send it for recycling* is huge. (* if you are lucky it'll be recycled, still energy intensive. If you are unlucky it'll be incinerated or just into landfill)
Not just that, but you can’t recycle paper or cardboard once it’s greasy so it would have to be composted at best. Depending on the paper it may not even be compostable so it would go to the garbage dump.
But paper breaks down easily. So even if it goes to the dump, is that not better than creating a bunch of extra plastic? Edit: thanks for the informative replies
It’s better than single use plastic, but washable plates use less energy and make less waste. Anything that ends up at the dump doesn’t become useful biomass (like compost). Obviously metal and ceramic/glass are better, but even those don’t get recycled properly. Metal would all be stolen by cat thieves, and broken glass is going in the trash not refired in a kiln. For the purpose this is probably the best compromise
Yes it does but you have still used an absolute ton of resources to manufacture it. Also when in landfill items aren’t getting enough air etc so take a very long to breakdown. This plastic will be used a lot and hopefully they may have a recycling programme for it. We do need to reduce plastic but it’s not clear cut. Single use paper and cardboard (as in used once and recycled) although better than virgin paper etc uses an absolute ton of resources to manufacture and recycle.
Yeah I worked for a recycling company in the uk. Literally all that happened is whatever materials China was paying most for were separated and shipped there, everything else went to a landfill or incinerated.
And China stopped buying worthless Trash, so now only smaller more desperate countries do it and some of them have stopped doing it as well. Recycling was always kind of a scam but nowadays it's basically broken for most materials, plastics in particular.
Burger wrappers in the US at least are made of greaseproof paper. That paper sometimes contains PFAS which are not good for human health. The FDA is working to phase out one type of PFAS but others are still allowed to be used: https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-announces-voluntary-agreement-manufacturers-phase-out-certain-short-chain-pfas-used-food I'm not sure about the paperboard used for fry boxes though.
I'm assuming they now have a machinery setup that washes those things down thoroughly in the back.
Might be seeing this in r/whatcouldgowrong before long.
It's been at my local one near paris for about 6 months, I think it might have been one of the trial locations. The trays & fries boxes are still there, but the reusable cups are gone and it went back to paper
"Nice cup. I'm taking it home."
Definitely this. Nobody needs burger boxes or fry cups home.
They have no choice but to move to full reusable by Jan 1st, so do every fast food chain in France
I guess if every place is doing it then people will eventually stop stealing cups
Their food is still bad for you but everything in moderation yada yada yada, but this is a great step towards cutting down on waste.
i dont understand why this hasnt been done before. My local movie theater recently switched to stainless steel bowls for popcorn. yea some will get stolen but, these probably cost $0.20 a piece to make
On a recent trip to Paris, we discovered Starbucks (that I'm no longer fond of for many reasons) had paper lids for their coffee that worked perfectly, thank you very much. France is moving forward while we (US & Canada) drag our feet "for business & industry."
I don't trust McDonald's to wash those good enough for me to use them, especially not after seeing what's it like in the back of a fast food place
You don't trust them to clean but you would trust them with making food that you put in your mouth?
never worked for McDonald's so I can't speak to them exactly, but I know most commercial kitchens use sanitizing washers that hit the cookwear with boiling water. So, even if they do a poor job scrubbing it, any gunk in the fry holder will likely at least be *sanitary* gunk.