Saturday, September 20, 2008

I'm lovin it???


I was out in Belfast with some mates last night. After a great night we were walking home about 330am and decided to stop off at the 24-hour McDonalds on the Newtownards Road for some quarter pounder meals.

We were chatting to the guy flipping burgers and he told us that they keep cooking food all night in case people come in. They throw out any unsold burgers after 10 minutes and cook some more. He said they throw out about £150 of burgers every night. That's £150 of what they cost McDonald's, not what we pay.

So I've done some rough calculations:
They probably throw at least twice as many out during the day than at night. However most McDs are 24-hour. A very generous estimate would be that the average McDs throws out £300 of burgers every day altogether.

Google tells me there are 25 MickeyDs in N.I. so that's £7500 wasted per day here.

There are 31,000 McDs in the world so that's £9,300,000. Nearly £10 million a day and that's being generous! Probably far more.

Rainforests are being destroyed around the world, millions of tonnes of packaging are used for a few minutes and then discarded, and I'll not even get into a world poverty rant... all because lads with bum fluff moustaches and squeaky voices are being forced to throw out their handiwork.

McDonalds boycott anyone?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

John, thats a great idea...how do you think of them??!!!

Anonymous said...

Been boycotting them for years.

Nina

Anonymous said...

not to mention you just fully dobed in our mate who was fully lovin the car based humor in the drive through...

Anonymous said...

Can someone not wait for a burger to be cooked?????? That's ridiculous with some of the world hungry, can you not get a comment from the top level and see if something could be done about the waste.

Anonymous said...

i hate mcdonald's anyway, i don't think i'd count as a boycotter...

Anonymous said...

I bet you still ate your burger all the same Johnboy

The Wee Italian Chick said...

I am in big time! Have been boycotting MCD's in years - we are quite fortunate it never quite picked up in Italy so, ten years after it's arrival here, they are all starting to shut down! Amen to local produce and small businesses!

roast honey said...

My brother worked for McDonalds for years and used to tell me all about the amount of waste- but they are not the only ones. Surely this problem isn't specific just to McDonalds? Surely this is a food issue. I don't really ever get Mc D's but something tells me that this is due in large to the UK food hygiene regulations- i mean I bet if someone approached Mc D's with the opportunity to supply the homeless with burgers they'd jump at the publicity chance.

AILÍN said...

Cud be worse, Ann's Pantry

http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/39Rat-infestation39-closes-Belfast-bakery.4518852.jp

in Queen arcade have it seems never thrown out anything in all their miserable lives, including the recently discovered rats (dead and alive) and eggs (best before April), but on a serious point...I struggle to accept that someone who writes this blog would have ever set foot in McD's...you live and learn...

Anonymous said...

surely if you boycote it there will be even more waste.. £20,000,000 plus per day?? Mac D's anyone?

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