McDonald’s Reimagines its Interiors through Radical Circular Design

Creating a New Framework for Life Cycle Analysis (LCA)

The life cycle of the project’s interior furnishings and surfaces was measured and tracked through an index created by ecological sustainability consultancy Anthesis. The design strategies consist of easy-to-disassemble furnishings that lack powder coating and laminates that make materials notoriously hard to recycle. Assembled with mechanical fixings rather than glue, the items can be easily deconstructed by local crews and reused as raw materials. Recycled coffee grounds are used for the tabletops for the tables at the McCafé. One hundred percent of the plastic used in tabletops and stools is made from recycled content, as well as all of the plastic used in the restaurant’s chairs. Eighty percent of the wood used in the restaurant is PEFC certified, and the floor and ceilings are Cradle to Cradle certified. One goal of this experiment is for McDonald’s to eventually create a “take-back” program with materials suppliers. 

One challenge that WeWantMore faced in the design process was the issue of durability. They experimented with resilient elements like the scratch-resistant tabletops that protect the tables’ surface and color from damage by food trays and daily cleaning agents. “All of these materials have to go through all of the heavy testing that McDonald’s does,” says Belmans. 

Despite an intentionality in letting the materials speak for themselves as sustainable, this eco-friendliness is not all in-your-face. “We didn’t want to do any flag-waving,” says Silke Korporal, head of global design at McDonald’s, “so we didn’t advertise a sustainable decor inside the design. We just wanted it to be. 

Would you like to comment on this article? Send your thoughts to: [email protected]

• Hospitality

• Cindy Hernandez
• Circular Design
• Hospitality
• Hospitality Design
• McDonald’s