McDonald's Is Making Yet Another Change To McFlurry Packaging (And Going Mini)

McDonald's McFlurry is getting a bit of an outfit change. The company is ditching its current cup with the plastic crown lid on top in favor of a new sustainable one that closes with a set of four foldable flaps. Not only that, but McDonald's is also introducing a new size of McFlurry too: the Mini McFlurry. That's for those of us who just want a taste of dessert instead of having to commit to a more standard serving (after all, a fast food meal can get pretty heavy, even before you get to dessert). The Mini McFlurry (and the new packaging) is debuting on September 10.

This move helps McDonald's advance its environmental goals — it's trying to source all of its primary consumer packaging from recycled, certified, and renewable materials by the close of 2025. Fast food packaging has been a source of environmental concern over the past few years, if not longer. For example, Taco Bell's decision to temporarily remove the Mexican Pizza from its menu allegedly stemmed partially from the fact that the packaging itself led to the tossing of over seven million pounds of paperboard waste yearly. As much as we love our Mexican Pizza, I'd argue that the Earth itself could use more than a little extra love right now.

The McFlurry spoon with the weird square handle has been gone for almost a year at this point. It too was swapped out for traditional plastic ones for environmental reasons. The spoon didn't function as a straw, as some people incorrectly surmised; it was shaped that way because it was designed to click onto the machine that stirred the toppings into McDonald's soft serve.

This was supposed to save on the labor costs of cleaning the machine, but those spoons took extra plastic to manufacture and were ultimately deemed wasteful in multiple ways. Aside from the novelty of holding the hefty spoon in your hand, as long as the McFlurry makes it to our mouths, I don't think too many people mind losing the square spoons all that much.

The four-flap packages have already been implemented in other markets such as Canada and Indonesia, so there's already proof that they work just fine. It was just a matter of time until we got our own streamlined version that doesn't involve two parts and eliminates the need for plastic altogether. Don't be too surprised if you see additional changes to McDonald's packaging happen over the next year, since this is all part of the same ongoing effort to reduce the fast food giant's waste footprint.