Supermac’s praised for waste reduction initiative

The country’s most popular fast-food chain, Galway’s own Supermac’s, has been lauded for taking a lead in cutting down on its use of plastics and reducing waste.

Biodegradable burger wrappers and ‘Green Teams’ in each restaurant who pick litter off the street every night, are among the new anti-littering measures implemented by Supermac’s.

The owners of the business, Pat and Una McDonagh, were singled out for praise at a public meeting of the County Galway Joint Policing Committee (JPC) held in O’Sullivan’s Hotel in Gort last week, for embracing ‘green’ initiatives.

Councillor Michael ‘Moegie’ Maher, chair of the illegal dumping and littering JPC sub-committee, outlined some of the changes that have been made at Supermac’s, after the sub-committee pointed out that littering of fast-food wrappings was a scourge on our countryside.

Cllr Maher approached Supermac’s outlining the problem, and the McDonaghs agreed to make changes, he said.

The meeting was told that among the initiatives rolled-out by Supermac’s was the introduction of biodegradable burger wrappers at their restaurants nationwide.

He said some of the containers used to hold chips were now “100% recyclable” and they’ve ditched plastic straws in favour of more environmentally friendly paper ones.

“It’s been a huge effort by Supermac’s,” said Cllr Maher.

“They now have what’s called a ‘Green Team’ in every one of their businesses. Every night, the teams do a litter pick 100 metres either side of the business. If we can encourage other businesses to do the same, it will have a huge long-term impact on reducing litter in the county. We’re on the right road and huge credit to Supermac’s.”

The meeting in Gort, chaired by Cllr Pete Roche, heard how the problem of illegal dumping remains a scourge across the county.