Crew members from the McDonald’s Carrickfergus restaurant recently teamed up with the town’s Eco Rangers NI group for a litter clean up along the Marine Highway and around Carrickfergus Castle.

The local litter clean-up was just one of a number of similar community events organised across Co Antrim in the month of April, adding further to a wide range of litter initiatives rolled out by McDonald’s daily across the UK and Ireland every day.

Litter patrols take place around every McDonald’s restaurant three times each day, with employees covering a total of 5,000 miles each week to pick up all waste, including packaging of other restaurants and retailers.

McDonald’s Carrickfergus

McDonald’s Franchisee Des Lamph said the campaign reinforced McDonald’s “strong commitment to tackling the scourge of litter in Northern Ireland.”

“We take our environmental responsibilities extremely seriously,” Des said. “We very much share our customers’ and stakeholders’ disappointment and frustration at seeing out outdoor spaces blighted by litter.

“Alongside our daily practical and operational initiatives, we are committed to collaborating with community partners such as Carrickfergus Eco Rangers NI to help bring about behavioural change in relation to important societal and environmental issues such as littering.”

Abe Agnew BEM from Carrickfergus Eco Rangers NI commented: “Littering is a very real and very serious problem, even here in Carrick, so it’s fantastic to see major brands like McDonald’s playing such a proactive role in tacking the issue every day.

“But it’s a shared problem and something that we all must take responsibility for, so our Eco Rangers NI group is proud to have joined forces with McDonald’s to play our role in cleaning up the town.”