Sign up for the Packaging Digest News & Insights newsletter.
McDonald’s Ditches Plastic McFlurry Lids for a New All-Paperboard Design
Mickey D's US rollout of the lid-free paperboard cups reduces plastic waste and supports sustainability goals. Watch a video of a machine producing an international variant, and read reviews from social media "experts."
2 Min Read
McDonald's
At a Glance
- The US debut follows Canada, the UK, Australia, Indonesia, and European countries, which started the switch in 2019.
- The company hasn't commented on the recyclability. Paper cups are typically difficult to recycle, being plastic-coated.
- The new US cup follows McFlurry’s October 2023 move to a smaller spoon that uses less plastic.
A novel soft-serve packaging design is helping McDonald’s reduce its use of plastic packaging in the United States.
The company has replaced its former McFlurry packaging — a cup with a plastic dome lid — with a lid-free cup. The new paperboard packaging has four perforated flaps that fold over the filled cup.
The four-flap cups began rolling out at the company’s US locations nationwide on September 10, 2024. At the same time, the company launched the Mini McFlurry, which uses a smaller cup. The standard McFlurry and mini version will both be filled into four-flap packaging.
International rollout began in 2019.
McDonald’s stores in other countries, including Canada, the United Kingdom, Italy, Indonesia, and Australia, already use the McFlurry four-flap cup. In Europe, the switch from lidded cups to the flapped design dates to 2019.
In 2021, New Debao Machinery Co., based in China, shared this video of a machine appears to be producing the four-fold cups, albeit with some design variation from the US version:
For the US market, the updated cup design, in addition to reducing plastic packaging and single-use plastic waste, aligns with McDonald’s sustainability goal of sourcing 100% of its primary guest packaging from renewable, recycled, or certified materials by the end of 2025.
The comapny has not commented on the four-flap cup’s recyclability, but paper cups are typically difficult to recycle because the paper is coated with plastic.
A flurry of social media "experts" weigh in.
Social media reactions to the four-flap cap are mixed. On the Facebook page of Louisiana radio station Big 102.1, Susan Plouet Broussard commented that she bought a McFlurry “and the cup is so flimsy. Not strong like the cups before and they shrunk. McDonald’s is going more and more down the drain. don’t squeeze the cup anywhere 'cause it is spilling over.”
At the Facebook page of Canadian radio station Niagara’s Move 105.7, McFlurry consumer Shannon Typer-Sewell offered a different opinion, writing: “I got one like a month ago and it came in one of these. They are actually decently sturdy but I still don’t like it.”
The debut of the four-flap cup in the United States complements a sustainability upgrade to McFlurry packaging in October 2023, when McDonald’s replaced the product’s plastic “spindle spoon” with a smaller spoon that uses less plastic.
About the Author
You May Also Like
