How quick do YOU eat your Big Mac?

The eating distance of a McDonalds takeout seems to be, on the Diarys observation, somewhere between eight and nine kilometres by car.



The observations have been made over a number of months on the New Abbey Road, where from time to time we have seen the large and small bags, and the burger boxes, with the M logo, discarded on the grass verges between the church and McGarry's Lane.



The discards most probably originated in the drive-in section of the McDonalds in Newbridge, as logic suggests that anything coming from the Naas branch would have not got this far before being scoffed, or even come in this direction from there.



The Diary reports this partly to make the point that not all the litter in Kilcullen either originates here, nor is necessarily dropped by our locals.

Beyond that we'd suggest that there's possibly a doctorate thesis to be proposed on the travels of a Big Mac wrapper.

Maybe McDonalds would sponsor it?

An initial 'branding' of the local source of the stuff would be a good start to the research. Barcodes for packaging supplies to each branch could do it.

Or, even easier, how about overprinting each bag with 'McDonalds Newbridge' or other relevant location? We used to do it with the Guinness labels for the bottles in ‘The Hideout’ when I was growing up, at a time when most pubs bottled their own stout.

Hmm ... it might even be good to make it a mandatory requirement for every takeaway outfit? So that their packaging could be more easily returned to them by the street cleaners. Or at least make the research easier.

Again, the Diary is not blaming the takeaway food people for the dumping of their packaging. It's their customers, the too many among the rest of us who don't care.

But there's that doctorate to be done.

(As if I had the time ...?)

Brian Byrne.