As part of a waste reduction initiative within McDonald’s Pacific Sierra Region, the owners and franchise partners of 24 restaurants in Alameda County made recycling and composting of food scraps and food-soiled paper a priority at their businesses. Nine of those restaurants are being recognized for their outstanding efforts to add recycling and composting collection to not only back of the house operations, but for customers as well.  New recycling program rollouts included bi-lingual trainings, and rewards for staff participation. Employees at these model restaurants now collect recyclable and compostable materials from kitchens while customers separate materials for recycling and composting in the front of the house. Custom signs include images of McDonald’s products, and are brightly colored and highly visible to help customers and employees easily recognize which items need to be sorted.