Globally Green Living

I just returned from Europe where American junk food is luxury food and where fast food places do recycle. Yes, it is true, McDonald’s does help the environment abroad. The particular McDonald’s I went to had different receptacles for trash and plastic. There was also a receptacle for used batteries like AAA and AA that are not recyclable. This latter one is what I miss the most in the U.S. I have a problem tossing used batteries in the trash. OK, I admit it, I have a big problem because I have not tossed one in years and I have been known to take them in my luggage when I go to Europe so that I can put them in a proper recycling bin. Lately, I just avoid buying or using gadgets that do not use rechargeable batteries. Yeah for me…

Foreign Mcdonald’s also cater to local taste buds and offer food that is traditional in the place where they operate. Oh, and guess what? You can have beer with your Big Mac or an espresso drink. Actually, beer is one of the drink options for your meal (not on the Happy Mean though! And yes, it’s OK to have a beer when your kid is present, as long as you don’t get too tipsy to drive…). Because McD’s offers local foods, you can find bowls of vegetable soup and more desserts are fruit based. If American McDonald’s were a little bit more like foreign McDonald’s, maybe it would not be such a bad thing to have your kids eat their lunch there every once in a while instead of trying to pack a healthy lunch for them.

However, foreign McDonald’s are more expensive than American ones. Forget about the 99 cent burger and expect to pay a decent price for your burger. And why not? After all, in many countries a larger proportion of people’s income is spent on food purchases and people expect to be fed meals that do not taste like artificially flavored cardboard. I bet if more people were aware of the actual taste (and price) that food is supposed to have, maybe a smaller proportion of food would satisfy them and that would mean that less stress would be put on the environment. Oh, and of course, the law of demand also applies–all other things held constant, and increase in price will cause quantity demanded to go down. Thus, one can save the environment and fight obesity at the same time. What a concept…