The environmental organization Clearwaters and Arcos Dorados, the company that manages McDonald’s restaurants in Puerto Rico, announced the launch of the #MejorEnVaso initiative to reduce the consumption of plastic bottles in Puerto Rico.
For each McDonald’s customer who orders their McCombo with filtered water in a glass instead of a plastic bottle, the company will make a donation to Clearwaters to support its environmental projects focused on reducing garbage in marine and coastal ecosystems of Puerto Rico.
This initiative adds to a series of proactive actions that Arcos Dorados has been leading in its evolution towards a more sustainable operation, from packaging changes to the implementation of energy and water saving practices in its restaurants. Today, they continue to amplify the scope of their commitments, replacing and redesigning over 80% of its packaging towards the goal of eliminating single-use plastics. Between 2019 and 2022, McDonald’s has decreased over 620 tons of single-use plastics in Puerto Rico through this evolution.
“As a company with a firm commitment to our environment, we have a great opportunity and responsibility to use our scale to lead innovative solutions to the main socio-environmental challenges facing the world. This initiative seeks to proactively address the challenge of reducing single-use plastics in Puerto Rico and invite our customers to join these small collective changes that have a great impact in our country. We are very proud to be able to collaborate with Clearwaters Puerto Rico, an alliance that reflects our main commitments: conserving our environment and providing resources to local organizations that work for the progress of our communities and environment,” said Vincent Lamazou, Managing Director of Arcos Dorados Puerto Rico & USVI.
Over 10,000 pounds of garbage off the beaches of Puerto Rico
Clearwaters is a Puerto Rican non-profit entity dedicated to the protection of the coastal and marine environment of Puerto Rico through environmental projects focused on reducing solid waste in bodies of water.
Through underwater and coastal garbage collection, and environmental projects such as Coastal Reforestation, Study of Microplastics, Project. Limpia Tu Playa, and others, the organization led by a group of young Puerto Rican university students has managed to collect over 10,000 pounds of garbage on the beaches since 2018.
“Plastic is the solid waste that we find the most in cleaning and one of the main pollutants on our coasts. Through this alliance with McDonald’s, both organizations can carry the awareness message and amplify the environmental actions of our projects on a larger scale in Puerto Rico. #MejorEnVaso allows all Puerto Ricans to unite to achieve a great long-term impact for the good of our communities and our environment,” said Ricardo Quintana Venegas, founder of Clearwaters.
In addition to its environmental projects, Clearwaters seeks to address Puerto Rico’s main environmental challenges through awareness. The group offers educational workshops on topics such as photodegradation, microplastics, garbage residues, impact on marine life, coastal erosion, among others, with the objective of providing resources to achieve changes in the daily habits of Puerto Ricans.
The #MejorEnVaso project is part of Receta del Futuro, Arcos Dorados’ social and environmental responsibility platform. To learn more about the initiative, participating restaurants and other social and environmental commitments of the company, you can visit the page www.mcdonalds.com.pr/nosotros/mejorenvaso.
