May 24 (UPI) — McDonald’s shareholders voted Thursday against a proposal that would have led to a report analyzing the possibility of phasing out plastic straws at its restaurants.
The proposal received support from less than 8 percent of shareholder votes, USA Today reported.
It would have required McDonald’s to report on efforts to find substitutesfor plastic straws and the business risks it faces by using them.
SumofUs, an activist group focused on corporate reform has called for the company to ban the straws through a petition that has more than 480,000 signatures.
“McDonald’s uses millions of plastic straws every single day. Used for just a few seconds, then thrown away, many end up polluting our oceans,” the petition reads. “Small, light, and hard to avoid, it’s no wonder plastic straws dumped into the sea get stuck in sea turtles’ nostrils, lodged in the stomachs of baby seabirds, and end up in our food chain after being eaten by fish.”
In Great Britain, McDonald’s already decided in March to start phasing out plastic straws from its restaurants.
“We continue to work to find a more sustainable solution for plastic straws globally,” McDonald’s told USA Today ahead of the vote on Monday. “In the meantime, we have adopted compostable straws in certain markets to meet regulations while we work with packaging experts to develop a planet-friendly, cost-effective answer for all McDonald’s restaurants.”
