Sometimes, people wrestle for a long time with a very difficult decision—and then they have to make a choice 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 the foam plastic clamshell boxes in which it had long-sold the Big Mac and other sandwiches.
As the New York Times put it at the time:
“As recently as a week ago, McDonald’s was preparing to respond to public pressure for a cleaner environment by announcing that it would extend its limited plastics-recycling program …
“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.’”
Looking at this now, through the eyes of American customers in 2025, the whole thing seems anachronistic.
However, 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.
McDonald’s had faced mounting consumer pressure over its foam packaging. However, it resisted changes, in part because of concerns that sandwiches would get cold faster.
Its plan: to roll out a $100 million recycling program, and also maintained that its approach was environmentally sound. Yet, just days before the company was set to announce that it was keeping the packaging but adding the program, the Environmental Defense Fund objected, big time.
At this point, we can go to a day-by-day chronology that shows just how fast the company acted:
October 25: Frederic Krupp, head of the EDF, called Rensi, the head of McDonald’s U.S., to object strenuously.
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 plan to make the switch—which began in December.
The EDF says it made a big difference:
“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.”
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 momentous 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?
Now something many of us grew up seeing everywhere is a long-forgotten anachronism.
7 other things
Can children and teenagers be forced off social media en masse? Australia is about to find out. More than 1 million social media accounts held by users under 16 are set to be deactivated in Australia on Wednesday in a divisive world-first ban that has inflamed a culture war and is being closely watched in the United States and elsewhere. (NBC News)
A fertility start-up that promises to screen embryos to give would-be parents their “best baby” has come under fire for a “misuse of science” and “eugenics.” Nucleus Genomics, founded in 2021 by a college dropout and funded in part by Peter Thiel, describes its mission as “IVF for genetic optimisation,” offering advanced embryo testing that allows parents to screen diseases, autism, IQ, and eye color. The company has plastered signs reading “Have your best baby” and “Height is 80% genetic” in New York City subway stations. (The Times)
Three Russian soldiers were sentenced to up to 12 years in prison on Monday for torturing and killing Russell Bentley, a 63-year-old US national who had volunteered to fight for Russia against Ukraine. A photograph published in some Russian media on Monday showed Bentley sitting on a bed next to an assault rifle, with a pro-Russian flag, a souvenir from Texas and a bust of Vladimir Lenin. (The Guardian)
A new Realtor.com analysis of metro areas seeing the most departures from September 2024 through August 2025 has revealed which cities homeowners are fleeing in droves: Kansas City, San Antonio, and Indianapolis tied for having the highest turnover rate, with home 45 sales per 1,000 units, the report found. Shockingly, all six of the California metros included in the Realtor.com study saw turnover rates lower than the national average (29.7), suggesting that people are not leaving the state as much as is widely believed. (Daily Mail)
Everything from air fryers to TVs now suck up our personal data. Here’s how to give gadgets that respect privacy this Xmas. (The Conversation)
Young Daters Confront a Relationship Killer: the ‘Swag Gap.’ Gen Z has strong feelings about the stylistic imbalance that can doom a courtship; ‘It felt like a smack in the face.’ (WSJ)
Have you seen this (AI-generated) man? Police swap suspect sketches for AI. (The Washington Post)
Thanks for reading. Photo fair use. I wrote about some of this Inc.com. See you in the comments!
It was what was in the styrofoam that was more toxic.
Regarding McDonalds and styrofoam packaging: The timeline and how it played out reminds me of something we used to say to each other when I was in the Air Force and we had a project with an approaching deadline but had been putting it off. "How long will this take?" "If we wait until the last minute, it will only take a minute."
Curiously, the drama about McDonald's packaging seemed to miss the bigger point in my opinion. If the environmental benefit was even partially to protect human health, wouldn't we have gotten a bigger collective benefit by McDonalds dealing with the calorie count, high sodium, saturated fat and the highly processed ingredients in their food? Full disclosure -- I'm a sucker for a McDonald's steak, egg, and cheese biscuit...sorry, not sorry.