McDonald's, which will be running the world's largest fast food outlet at the Olympic park in Londont, the UK, will be using Novamont's Mater-Bi bioplastic for its cups, cutlery, straws, lids and containers.
“Many McDonald's items were already compliant with the EN13432 compostability standards but did not have the certification,” said the company's environment consultant Helen McFarlane.
“We obtained this by working alongside our suppliers for almost two years, with considerable investment in research and development.”
Mater-Bi will compost with anaerobic digestion, according to Italy's Novamont, helping make the expected 3,300 tonnes of food and food-related packaging waste that the games will generate easier to handle than if conventional materials are used.
London Olympic and Paralympic Games organising committee (Locog) has set the objective of 70% of the waste produced by the events should go for recycling, re-use or composting.
Novamont operates in the UK, Germany, France, Benelux, Scandinavia, Denmark, US, China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.