McDonald's ditches iconic item after nearly 30 years to 'help save the environment'

McDonald's is phasing out an iconic utensil to 'help save the environment.'

The fast-food giant revealed it will no longer offer the hollowed-out, square-shaped McFlurry spoon but will instead provide a 'smaller black spoon that uses less plastic.'

The McFlurry is a combination of vanilla soft serve with toppings, and the spoon doubles as a reusable spindle to mix the treat.

The announcement comes nearly 30 years after introducing the spoon to the public, becoming a recognizable utensil worldwide.

'True McFlurry fans know the spoon doubles as a spindle, which the restaurant crew uses to mix the perfect amount of sweet toppings into our creamy soft serve. And starting this month, it’s about to get a sustainable glow-up in the US,' McDonald's shared in a press release.

The announcement also noted that a reusable spindle will mix instead - they will be swapped out and cleaned after each McFlurry is made.

McDonald's recently launched an effort to reduce waste accumulated from its packaging and toy materials.

The food chain has switched to paper-based straws, added new McFlurry cups without plastic lids and introduced salad boxes and cutlery made from renewable fiber. 

However, the new spoons are still made of plastic - just a lesser amount since they will be smaller.

The company has completely ditched plastic cutlery in Europe, replacing them with paper options. 

A report in 2021 showed that McDonald's produced more than 300 million pounds of plastic in 2018.

The findings may have led the food chain on a greener path as it announced a major environmental effort to combat the waste.

'By the end of 2022, we were approximately 81.0 percent of the way toward our goal of sourcing 100 percent of our primary guest packaging from renewable, recycled or certified materials,' McDonald's shared in a statement.

Data published in July showed that the restaurant was the second largest plastic pollution in the UK - The Coca-Cola company took the top spot.

Surfers Against Sewage enlisted the help of 4,240 volunteers, who picked up items across 500 beach, river, woodland and street cleans.

The volunteers collected 30,745 individual items between 6 June 2022 and 5 June 2023.

An analysis of this rubbish revealed that 36 percent came from just 327 brands.

The Coca-Cola Company, which owns several popular brands, including Monster, Coca-Cola and Costa, topped the list as the worst polluter, with 1,820 items collected.

This was followed by McDonald's, responsible for 1,220 items, and PepsiCo, whose brands include 7Up, Pepsi and Walkers and made up 976 items.