P.M. BRIEFING : McDonald’s to Aid Recycling

McDonald’s Corp. and a leading environmental group said today they will work together on ways to slash the amount of garbage and litter produced by the company’s thousands of fast-food restaurants.

Fred Krupp, executive director of the Environmental Defense Fund, said his goal is to combine recycling, composting and redesign of materials to reduce solid waste from the world’s 11,000 McDonald’s outlets to zero.

McDonald’s, whose plastic and paper containers have made it one of the most prominent symbols of what critics call a throwaway society, agreed to form a joint task force with EDF.

Among the options to be examined are reusable cups and utensils, redesigned packaging and shipping materials, and using McDonald’s purchasing power to promote recycling by others.