1. In making the move to Quilt-Rap, McDonald's spread the benefit among various stakeholders of the organization. Employees benefit in that they do not have to manually sort product wrapping for recycling. Customers benefit in that the new packaging contains heat well and controls condensation with the same effectiveness as the clamshells. The public at large benefits from the standpoint that landfills will receive less waste through the use of the Quilt-Rap packaging.
There are, however, some stakeholders who do not benefit from this decision. This includes Plastics Again which will lose one of its largest suppliers of materials for recycling; even if the arrangement with Plastics Again was endangered because the company was losing its tax benefit, McDonald's will not be helping vendors who work in the recycling industry. The public at large benefits from the lack of contribution to landfills, but does not benefit from the increased use of paper in this packaging because of the demand placed on forests to supply that paper.
The Environmental Defense Fund, which can be viewed as a corporate partner in this arrangement, both benefits and suffers from this arrangement. Critics of the arrangement will hold that the EDF "sold out" to corporate America by not forcing through a more stringent packaging arrangement with McDonald's. Supporters of the agreement will cite this case as an instance with environmentalists were able to guide the actions of a large corporation to a more environmentally friendly approach.
2. The customer is not always right when it comes to environmental issues. Indeed, there are likely to be times when the customer is remarkably misinformed about environmental issues since such issues are rarely straightforward. In the case of McDonald's, for example, paper-based packaging results in less landfill usage but increased deforestation. This is not a trade off which most consumers (or corporations, for ...