McDonald’s Turning Green

In McDonald’s 2009 Best of Green highlights, they mention that their use of an interactive software program, EcoProgress, for managing and reducing energy usage in restaurants in France achieved an 11% savings in electricity.


In Australia, McDonald’s is involved in water management and say that over a 20 year period their advanced stormwater retention tanks can save nearly 4 million liters of water. In addition to this they are using water-conservation technologies that include low-flow spray nozzles, dual-flush toilets, and extensive native landscaping and water conservation improvements through smart irrigation practices. McDonald’s Australia’s recently updated landscaping guidelines educate contractors and field personnel on issues such as water conservation, the use of native and drought-resistant plantings, and advanced stormwater retention methods.

“In Brazil, Chile and Argentina, McDonald’s has partnered with local organizations that transform used cooking oil into biodiesel. Currently, 270 restaurants in these markets deliver their used oil to be converted into biodiesel, representing over 1,000,000 liters of oil to date.” Is this superficial greenwashing or is McDonald’s stepping up to the plate on environmental issues?


McDonald’s is also jumping into the green building environment in the US. Last year, they opened their first “green restaurant” (in Chicago) for a new pilot program on green building. It received the Gold LEED rating! In one location in North Carolina, it has actually installed a charging station for electric vehicles.
McDonald’s is also making a big difference in Japan. By joining the Team Minus 6% program hosted by the Japanese government, “to reduce CO2 emissions by 1kg per person, per day, by offering a discount to consumers who registered to participate in the program,” McDonald’s helped to increase the participants from 40,000 to 380,000.Also McDonald’s Japan has installed LED lighting in 33 restaurants in 2009, CO2 emissions were reduced by 18 tons annually per restaurant and electricity consumption in the restaurants’ dining areas was reduced by an average of 44 percent, saving an average of $9,400 per year. Based on the demonstrated environmental and cost benefits, the decision has been made to install LED lighting in all new McDonald’s restaurants in Japan, and a review is underway to determine if LED lighting should be standard for all McDonald’s Japan restaurants.

In 2003, McDonald’s opened its first HFC-free restaurant in Vejle, Denmark. Equipped with appliances operating on natural refrigerants such as Propane, Isobutene, and CO2, the restaurant has none of the HFC gases harming the ozone layer and contributing to climate change. Compared with restaurants using conventional technology, the pilot restaurant consumes about 12 percent less energy and its Total Equivalent Warming Impact is on average 27 percent lower. Emissions are reduced by 25 tons of CO2 equivalents per year. "It really is cool to be green!" they say.

Moreover McDonald's saves nearly 161,000 trees a year thanks to the fact that the innovative container that holds the Big Mac (as well as the Quarter Pounder and Filet-O-Fish) is made with at least 37 percent recycled content.

Is McDonald’s a world leader in environmental issues now, or is this minor activity compared to their non-environmentally friendly activity?

Thus such an influential company is going behind green matters and that can be a huge benefit to the environment. For sure, they have influence on the success of the soya and cattle moratoria in the Amazon. And, clearly, they are helping to boost climate change action in Japan. They are doing a lot with some of their buildings to reduce energy usage. Is it enough? Is it living up to it’s environmental responsibilities? Is it a multi-national company others can follow?

If you have any thing in mind please write your comment below, and I'll be very happy to read it and even reply to it!

Recycling Batteries

Battery recycling is good for the earth and good for future generations. Battery recycling is the act of processing used or abandoned batteries, which would otherwise be considered waste and harmful to our environment. Many communities have curbside battery recycling services to help out and there are battery recycling centers all across the country where spent batteries can be brought. Often times battery recycling centers pay you for dropping spent battery off, so it's a win-win situation.

There are many misconceptions about what materials can and cannot be recycled. These misconceptions hinder the success and cost-efficiency of recycling programs worldwide. However, with a little consumer education, recycling can be a very important and environmentally sound solution to waste management.
Why Lead Recycling?
Lead is a material which is very easy to recycle. It can be re-melted many times, and provided enough processes to remove impurities. The final product (termed as Secondary Lead) is indistinguishable in any way from primary Lead produced from the ore.
The amount of Lead recycled as a proportion of total production is already fairly high worldwide. Over 50% of Lead consumed is derived from recycled or re-used material.
Recycling rates of Lead are estimated to be much higher than for other materials.

Lead Battery Recycling Advantages
Recovering scrap metal has the advantages that it is easier and much less energy intensive than producing primary Lead from ore (the production of recycled Lead requires 35-40% of the energy needed to produce Lead from ore.) Recycling also reduces dispersal of Lead in the environment and conserves mineral resources for the future. It is estimated that at least 85% of Lead consumed could potentially be recycled. However, in practice the amount that is recovered is lower.
Lead Battery Scrap
Lead Battery Scrap is a hazardous waste & unsafe disposal creates heavy environmental & health problems. Careful recycling is essential, beneficial & cost effective in comparison to cost of treatment & disposal. Secondary production of Lead (recycling) from scrap result in less solid waste, uses less energy & reduces the consumption of minerals resources compared to the Lead production from the ores.
Role in Production
The role of recycling in the production of metals continues to grow. Due to the high value of metals, economic considerations are usually sufficient to ensure reasonably high recycling rates and efforts to increase it. Environmental concerns currently play a secondary role.
Limitation in Recycling:
Some Lead products are not recycled, either because it is not economic to do so at present, or simply because it is not practical to do so. However, recycling rates are generally increasing. Legislative and economic factors are two key incentives for this increase.
Resources to increase recycling rate
Improved waste management systems, such as incentives for battery recovery, guidelines for handling old building materials, old vehicles, electronic scrap, stricter quality demands for dumping materials and also progress in production techniques tend to generate higher recycling rates.

E-Waste Market Size Continues to Grow

The modernization and digitization have proved to be worthy for the entire world and humanity but it has also given us a menace in the form of e-waste. With the increasing use of electronic devices and electrical equipment, the collection of e-waste is also mounting.
E-waste or electronic waste is a term used for those electronic equipment that has reached its end of life in the hand of its current user. These devices when disassembled or destroyed are either taken for reuse or slated for hazardous disposal. Some of the electronic waste can be recycled and they are called as a "commodity" while those which cannot be reused is categorized as "waste".

E-Waste Market Size

The global market of electronic waste is estimated to be $7.2 billion in 2004 and it is predicted to increase at average annual growth rate of 8.8% till 2009 to $11 billion.

• Due to the rising demand of high value engineered plastics, the recycled plastics sector will register the maximum revenue growth. It will grow at 10.2% AAGR.
• The recycled metals market will continue to be dominated by the growth in metals mined from end of life electronic waste, growing at an AAGR of 8.1%.
• Recycled glass is low valued hence the recycled glass market continues to be stagnant. Glass cullets sold into the marketplace will continue to command modest prices.
• The cathode ray tube recovered from the old CRTs are vastly used in the new CRTs. The market demand for recovered cathode ray tube feedstock is growing and getting stronger. Due to this higher value glass-to-glass recycling the market will grow at an AAGR of 7.5%.

Reasons for Increasing E-Waste

Due to the increasing areas of information society and the dependency of businesses on computer and Internet, the e-waste has been mounting. Perhaps e-waste is the fastest growing segment of the municipal solid waste stream. E-waste has been mounting rapidly with the rise of the information society. In developed countries, e-waste constitutes 1% of solid waste but it is expected to grow to 2% by 2010. In developing countries, the percentage of e-waste out of solid waste ranges from 0.01% to 1%. But in recent future, the developing countries including, China will be the fastest growing segment of the e-waste market. Over the next five years, the electronic waste in developing countries has the potential to triple the amount at current.
The rising mount of electronic waste isn't going to be cut recently. Computer sales are growing at a rate of 10% worldwide and sale of DVD players are doubling every year. Along with that the rate of obsolescence of electronic equipment is increasing. The life-cycle of the electrical and electronic equipment are shortening. The life period of a television set is reduced to 10 years while that of a computer remains only 2-3 years. All the above mentioned facts are equally responsible for the rising e-waste. In spite of such horrendous situation manufacturers and governments have not kept pace with electronic waste policy and practice. Eventually a high percentage of electronics are ending up in the waste stream releasing harmful toxins into the environment.

Pattrick is working as an industry analyst in the electronics and electrical industry for last fifteen years. He is working on a blog where you can get a lot of information on electronics industry, news, innovations, tradeshows, etc. http://myelectronicsblog.blogspot.com/ He is associated with one of the best electronics and electrical industry marketplaces http://www.digitivity.com/

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New technologies are now arising, polymers are helping easier management of e-wastes!

Undertaking E-Waste Management For a Greener Tomorrow

The problem of e-waste management warrants greater attention in India due to the increasing volumes of e-waste dumps, particularly computer waste, by developed countries. Of late, a number of SMEs have also woken up to the gravity of the situation. In order to dispose the e-waste dumps, these SMEs are implementing environment friendly e-waste management technologies for minimising the waste volume.

India, one of the leading countries in the global IT and telecom domain, generates huge volumes of electronic waste (e-waste) every year. According to industry estimates, electronic equipment manufacturers and assemblers in India generate around 1250 tonnes of electronic waste annually.

As formal waste recycling and disposal technology is still in a nascent stage in India, it has aggravated the problem of toxic pollutants that are disposed in open environment. Kurian Joseph, Associate Professor, Center for Environmental Studies, Anna University, says, "In India, waste recycling and disposal have been performed through informal techniques, which has given rise to serious environmental hazards."

United against e-waste generation

Speaking about the initiatives taken by the government to alleviate the problem of e-waste generation in the country, Prof. Joseph says, "A recent legislation passed by the government mandates e-waste generators to collaborate with licensed waste management firms to bring down wastage volume and recycle it safely."

In addition, a slew of small and mid-sized firms are seen entering into tie-ups with various international firms to exploit green technologies for reducing e-waste. K Vijaya Lakshmi, VP of Development Alternatives, shares, "A Bengaluru-based NGO has recently brought together several SME sector firms to initiate community programmes aimed at e-waste management".

Innovations leading the way

Innovations such as green data centres and virtualisation can play a significant role in e-waste management. In addition, these technologies can optimise the use of space and power in the IT and telecom sector. Furthermore, manufactures should strive for waste minimisation by using non-hazardous materials during their production process itself rather than managing the wastes later.

"Along with implementing green technologies, both SMEs and bigger firms should ensure proper waste handling across their supply chains, and waste recycling should only be performed by licensed firms", says Dr Lakshmi.

Dr Lakshmi also emphasised that waste management is the responsibility of both consumers and Manufacturers, who should reduce the use of hazardous substances and dispose waste properly.

David Parks is a well known author and has written articles on SME finance Guide, B2B Portal, B2B Products, suppliers, Manufactures and many other subjects.

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