McDonald's Recycled Restaurant

McDonald’s is showcasing dozens of recycled materials—from feldspar floor tiles to a recycled copper roof—in a new restaurant in Kent, Washington. It is the most recent of four such restaurants recently built around the country; the others being in New York, Arizona, and Tennessee. According to McDonald’s corporate staff, the Kent building stands as a model to customers and the business public. Lori Tschohl, Environmental/Nutritional Coordinator for the corporation’s Western Washington Region says that although owner-operators are not required to use recycled building materials, she expects “more and more McDonald’s restaurants to be built, renovated, and equipped with recycled materials.” Regional Construction Manager Brad Baker says that recycled content is “incorporated in the construction specs for corporately owned restaurants now.” (Corporately owned restaurants account for about 10% of the 115 restaurants in the region.) Baker says that the extra cost of some recycled materials (such as the roof) was offset by other savings. He believes the construction project was economically a “wash.”

Besides showcasing recycled building products, the Kent site boasts numerous other environmentally sensitive features, including: