McDonald's staff celebrate after striking gold

The McDonald’s restaurants were independently audited by Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful (KNIB) across 10 key environmental categories including waste management, general cleanliness, exterior maintenance and litter.

Of the 27 McDonald’s outlets in Northern Ireland, nine received a platinum award, 13 merited gold awards and five achieved silver, reflecting the company’s vision for a cleaner, greener Northern Ireland.

The restaurants at Abbeycentre and Glengormley both received gold awards.

“I very much welcome businesses working to protect and promote the local environment and I commend all of the award winners,” Mr Durkan said. “They have shown real relish here for the environment on a number of levels – reducing waste, recycling and tackling litter outside their premises.”

Des Lamph, McDonald’s franchisee commented: “We are delighted to have received such positive feedback from KNIB, and the presentation of these awards is testament to the hard work of our franchisees and their teams and illustrates McDonald’s ongoing commitment to helping improve the environment and communities which we are a part of.

“Across the business our ethos is to work in partnership with our local stakeholders to support the drive for environmental change on issues such as litter and the need to reduce, reuse and recycle within our restaurants. We are looking forward to continuing to work closely with Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful to strengthen our environmental commitments in the year ahead.”

Dr Ian Humphreys, chief executive of Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, added: “Achieving environmental excellence is something that takes time and effort from all staff, so I am delighted to see these strong results, which are testament to McDonald’s real commitment to continuous improvement in Northern Ireland.”

The Green and Growing Awards have encouraged McDonald’s staff and franchisees to develop strategies which aim to reduce, reuse and recycle while promoting a culture of sustainability and responsibility towards the environment.