The enterprise with foreign investment (FDI) McDonald's Ukraine Ltd. (Kyiv), which is developing the U.S. fast food chain McDonald's in Ukraine, plans to expand a pilot program for sorting waste in restaurant halls to the entire chain in Ukraine by the end of 2021.

According to the company's press release, the pilot program was launched in September 2020 at 16 restaurants in Kyiv, Lviv, Dnipro, Kharkiv and Kyiv region. Special sorting stations were installed in the restaurant halls to separate waste by type. The sorted waste was sent for recycling of raw materials.

According to the company, in four months of the pilot program, more than 80 tonnes of packaging were sorted and transferred for processing. In general, more than 2.6 million Ukrainians have joined the program.

In addition, earlier in September 2020, the company replaced plastic containers for salads with paper packaging, in June it replaced plastic cups for cold drinks with cellulose cups recyclable in Ukraine, the press service recalls.

"By 2025, McDonald's globally plans to completely switch to the production of all packaging materials from renewable certified raw materials, as well as raw materials that can be reused. Thus, polyethylene and plastic can be used to make garbage bags, and other waste will get a second life after recycling," the press service said.

The first McDonald's in Ukraine was opened in Kyiv on May 24, 1997. The McDonald's restaurant chain in Ukraine has 96 restaurants in 20 cities.