The Australian arm of McDonald's has made a bold and admirable commitment to get rid of all plastic cutlery by the end of the year.
Hundreds of thousands of knives, forks and spoons are handed out every day at the fast food restaurants, but this will soon be a thing of the past.
Order a McFlurry? You'll soon get a 'fibre-based' spoon. Ask for a salad? Looks like you'll be getting those leafy greens out with a new-look fork.
McDonald's director of supply chain and sustainability, McDonald's representative Kylie Freeland told the the National Plastics Summit in Canberra: "This means Macca's will be removing 585 tonnes of plastic per year.
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"We're committed to being an industry leader in sustainable practices, ultimately using our scale for good to positively impact challenges facing the communities we operate in.
"By removing plastic straws and cutlery from McDonald's restaurants, we are continuing to reduce our environmental footprint and will be removing more than 860 tonnes of plastic from our system."
The fast food empire has been trialling non-plastic straws for all their drink products as they aim to phase them out completely by the end of 2020.
The announcement, made in 2018, wasn't popular with loads of people who thought the new straw didn't stay taut for long enough. However, Macca's has spent many months looking at the best material to create the new straw.
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A spokesperson for the company told news.com.au: "At Macca's, we're always looking for ways to reduce our environmental impact and in recent years, we have made numerous changes to our packaging.
"As part of this work, we have been conducting a number of trials in restaurants around the country - including paper straws and providing straws from behind the counter."
Meantime, the Australian government has announced harsher rules when it comes to companies dealing with its waste. Prime Minister Scott Morrison told the plastics summit that he is meeting with state and territory leaders over the next two weeks to finalise a ban on the export of waste plastic, paper, glass and tyres.
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He added that work is also underway to improve the country's recycling systems.
"The Commonwealth stands ready to work with the states to co-invest in these critical infrastructure facilities and with industry," he said. "We are working with state and territory governments to identify and unlock the critical upgrades that will lead to a step-change in recycling capacity.
"We will invest with governments and with industry on a one-to-one-to-one basis."
Featured Image Credit: PA