Sometimes in business, you wrestle for a long time with very difficult choices. Then sometimes, you have to act very quickly
That’s what happened at McDonald’s 35 years ago this week, when the company announced its “abrupt decision,” in the words of contemporary news accounts, to get rid of the foam plastic “clamshell” boxes in which it had long-sold the Big Mac and other sandwiches, and make the switch to paper packaging.
As the New York Times put it at the time:
As recently as a week ago [before the announcement], the McDonald’s Corporation was preparing to respond to public pressure for a cleaner environment by announcing that it would extend its limited plastics-recycling program to all of its 8,500 restaurants nationwide.
…
The company had insisted to the end that its foam packaging was environmentally sound. But “our customers just don’t feel good about it,” said Edward H. Rensi, the president of McDonald’s U.S.A. “So we’re changing.”
Design innovation
Looking at this now, through the eyes of American customers in 2025, the whole thing seems anachronistic.
But the packages really were among the best-known symbols in America at the time.
How much of an icon were they? The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History includes an exhibit on them.
Featured specifically: the McDonald’s Double Clam Shell Container — a twice-the-size package designed to keep hot and cold parts of a burger separate (and thus staying closer to the intended temperature) until the customer was ready to eat them.
But these innovative packages came with an environmental price.
And according to the Environmental Defense Fund, which pressured McDonald’s back in the day and worked with the company on the change:
Over the next decade, McDonald’s eliminated more than 300 million pounds of packaging including the polystyrene clamshells, recycled 1 million tons of corrugated boxes and reduced restaurant waste by 30 percent.
As a result of these and other changes, McDonald’s saves an estimated $6 million per year.
Slow, and then all at once
McDonald’s had faced mounting consumer pressure over its foam packaging, which the company had introduced in 1975. But it resisted changes, in part because of concerns that sandwiches would get cold faster.
So, McDonald’s planned to roll out a $100 million recycling program, and also maintained that its approach was environmentally sound. But just days before the company was set to announce that it was keeping the packaging but adding the program, the EDF objected.
At this point, we can go to a day-by-day chronology that shows just how fast the company acted:
- October 25: Frederic D. Krupp, head of the EDF, called Rensi, the head of McDonald’s U.S., to object.
- October 26: Rensi: “When I got back in the office on Friday, I called Shelby Yastrow, who heads our environmental work, and told him to get some people together and study whether we should get rid of foam and switch to paper.”
- October 31: By Halloween, reporters had figured it out and were scooping McDonald’s ahead of its November 1 announcement.
From a contemporary account:
[T]he swiftness of the company’s reversal after years of vigorously defending the use of foam came as a surprise to some of those involved in solid-waste disputes.
“This is a case study for the business schools,” said Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group. “The decision was made in the last 72 hours. You get the impression they do something and then try to figure out what it means.”
Quick decisions, long-term results
We should add one more point, which is that McDonald’s said it had spent a lot of time studying what it would be like to get rid of foam packaging. So, during that roughly 72-hour period when the company made the momentuous change, it already had data it felt pretty good about to inform the decision.
Since then, most food companies and restaurants that were using foam packaging have moved on, even though the environmental aspect is a bit more complex than public pressure might have indicated at the time.
Today, McDonald’s faces even greater packaging challenges, particularly overseas.
Case in point: a French law that says any fast food restaurant with more than 20 seats has to use reusable packaging for dine-in customers.
It’s challenging, I’m sure. But isn’t that part of the fun?
I wonder what’s the next quick-thinking, long-reaching decision you’ll make in your business.
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.
Bill Murphy Jr.
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