McDonald’s has been slammed for suing a German city over its new municipal tax on disposable packaging despite the American fast food giant already using reusable packaging in the UK.

McDonald’s is suing the picturesque university city of Tuebingen, in central Baden-Wuerttemberg, in south-western Germany, after its Lord Mayor, Boris Palmer, 49, championed a disposable packaging tax that came into effect on 1st January 2022.

The idea is to force companies to switch to more sustainable solutions in a bid to fight climate change and to protect the environment.

But ‘Mickey D’s’, as it is often called in the US, is not happy about the new tax and it is suing to stop it, leading Environmental Action Germany (DUH), an organisation that has been campaigning to protect nature for over 40 years, to accuse the American corporation of attempting to sabotage efforts to protect the climate and the environment.

DUH Managing Director Juergen Resch, 62, said on Monday that the fast food chain is blocking urgently overdue switches to environmentally and climate-friendly reusable alternatives.

Resch, along with Palmer, presented several reusable packages that he said McDonald’s uses in other countries such as France and the United Kingdom.

Mayor Palmer, who is a politician for the Greens, also said that the tax appears to be working, noting that the city’s rubbish bins had remained “surprisingly empty” since the introduction of the tax.

He said: “I spoke to the rubbish people: the impression that everyone has confirmed is that the rubbish bins are surprisingly empty.”

This has led to local media outlets labelling the disposable packaging tax a success. Resch has also labelled Tuebingen’s new tax as a role model that other cities should follow.

But the owner of the Tuebingen branch of McDonald’s has filed a complaint with the administrative court in Mannheim over the packaging, and she is reportedly supported by McDonald’s, which argues that a national concept is necessary instead.

The unnamed entrepreneur who owns the Tuebingen branch of McDonald’s, who reportedly acknowledged that she bore some responsibility to make a significant contribution towards conserving resources and reducing packaging waste, however, considered that the tax in Tuebingen was disproportionate.

She said: “If I pass the price on to the guests, those on a tight budget will no longer be able to come. If I bear the costs myself, it’s at least a six-figure amount a year.”

The fast food giant reportedly added: “There cannot be local, isolated solutions and special routes for each of the more than 10,000 cities and communities in Germany.”

The owner of the Tuebingen branch of McDonald’s believes that the waste tax violates federal waste law. The city, meanwhile, has said that an oral hearing is planned for the end of the first quarter of 2022 – at the earliest.

The packaging tax states that EUR 0.50 (GBP 0.42) needs to be paid for each disposable beverage container, disposable food container, with an additional EUR 0.20 (GBP 0.17) required for each disposable cutlery set. The tax allows for a maximum of EUR 1.50 (GBP 1.25) to be charged per meal.

The taxes are expected to be paid by anyone who sells food and drink in disposable packaging for immediate consumption or takeaway.