Farmer begs McDonald’s to ‘assume twice’ about packaging as matter of urgency

A farmer has been urging McDonald’s to take a stand against customers who are “spoiling the countryside”.

Tom Martin, also known by his online alias Farmer Tom, is sick and tired of rubbish and old fast food packing making its way on to his land in Cambridgeshire.

So he took to X suggest a solution to Maccies – as well as his 20,000 followers. He said: “Hey @McDonaldsUK- if this fast food bag had the license plate of the owner printed on it, don’t you think they’d think twice about spoiling our countryside? It’s a simple fix using technology you already have; come on, get to it!”

He made a similar post five years ago, where he pleaded: “The technology is available, and as soon as ⁦@McDonaldsUK⁩ start printing car registration numbers on takeaway packaging, this constant tide of littering will stop. Come on guys – what a Christmas gift to the countryside (and taxpayer) that would be!”

Tom’s passionate message has racked up more than 500,000 views over the last day or so – and many thought his idea as a good one. One commenter wrote: “Absolutely agree! I suggested this to them a while ago. No reply at all to my emails. It’s so easy to do.”

A second farmer slammed: “Regularly dumped on the verge below my farm, too. We had a regular user of a footpath who would get to the same point and discard the coffee cup bought from the local vending machine. We need a better way.”

Some did point out potential issues though – especially as people have a right to privacy. A responder argued: “Sympathetic to the problem, but I suspect data protection laws would be a significant obstacle as would proving the offence. It’s not quite as simple as you describe.”