Can You Put McDonald’s Coffee Cups in the Microwave (and What Might Happen if You Do)

McDonald’s sells more than 500 million cups of coffee every year. We can’t expect all 500 million cups to be as piping hot as we’d love it to be, so you might get a funny idea like putting it in a microwave. However, can you put McDonald’s coffee cups in the microwave, safely?

Unfortunately, you cannot put McDonald’s cups inside the microwave. These cups have wax and plastic lined around to prevent spillage, but they will melt and leach chemicals into your coffee once subjected to extreme heat, like being inside a microwave.

Aside from that, McDonald’s also specifically placed “Do Not Microwave” signs on these cups. They don’t recommend microwaving their cups as they are made from non-microwave-safe materials. 

If you want your coffee to be hot as when you got it from the counter, you’re better off transferring your cup to a microwave-safe cup to be safe. Placing a McDonald’s coffee cup in the microwave is too risky for a simple hot coffee.

Why Do McDonald’s Cups Say ‘Do Not Microwave’?

If you want to check if something is microwave-safe, you need to find the sign somewhere in the container. For McDonald’s cups, you’ll find the sign on the cup itself, not the lid. 

However, McDonald’s cups often have a bold sign somewhere that says “Do Not Microwave.” They placed this for a good reason: their cups can handle hot coffee, but not the extreme heat inside a microwave.

These cups are double-walled paper cups lined with a thin layer of plastic and wax to prevent their contents from spilling and making the paper cup soggy. Although these cups are generally environmentally-friendly and easier to recycle, they cannot endure the extreme heat coming from boiling coffee inside a microwave.

What Happens When You Microwave Their Coffee Cups

If you are in the worst situation and you had to place McDonald’s coffee cups in the microwave, then you can easily expect some things to go bad. The first thing you’d notice is that the wax and plastic that are lining the cup would melt. These materials would then leach chemicals into and ruin your coffee, rendering it undrinkable.

If you keep it inside the microwave for longer than a minute, you’ll notice the cup starts to collapse. Although these cups were designed to hold piping hot coffee, they cannot withstand the boiling temperatures that microwaves can heat coffee to. Not only is your coffee ruined, but also your entire morning.

That’s even ignoring the fire hazard that paper cups have. Paper cups are still naturally flammable, and if the cup doesn’t collapse, then it will likely burst into flames. That’s extremely dangerous for you and your microwave.

Conclusion

We know that morning can be hectic, and we need that boost of caffeine with a tinge of hotness to wake us up. However, if your McDonald’s coffee is too cold for your liking, putting it straight into the microwave may not be the best idea. You can’t put coffee cups in the microwave, so you’ll have to move your coffee into a better container to heat it up.