Burger King reveals city will be first in reusable trays trial

BURGER King UK has revealed Glaswegians will be the first to trial its newest sustainability initiative. To celebrate COP26, the Springfield Quay branch will test run 10,000 reusable plastic trays for kids before they are rolled out nationwide.

In 2019, the popular fast-food chain created Meltdown and removed plastic toys from its King Junior meals in an effort to reduce plastic and replaced them with more sustainable and recyclable ones.

The removal of plastic toys saw an incredible 320 tonnes of single-use plastic removed from the business each year, with the plastic saved being used to create the new trays.

The interactive trays will allow kids to get creative and colour in the tray liners to reveal Meltdown’s jeep driving bunny Beep Beep and other fun characters such as robot Mr Hugglesworth and T-Rex Roary.

Tim Doubleday, chief financial officer at Burger King UK and chairman of the sustainability committee at UK Hospitality, said: “Meltdown was an exciting first step for us to take on our sustainability journey.

“Seeing our old plastic toys transform into something that truly does good for the environment, as seamlessly as we envisioned, is exciting.”

London and Berlin-based design and technology company Pentatonic has been Burger King’s key partner behind the campaign’s toy recycling and tray manufacturing efforts.

Jamie Hall, chief brand officer at Pentatonic, said: “The Meltdown project is a shining example of how global organisations can take tangible steps towards sustainability transformation by returning surplus materials from one part of their businesses to another, instead of using ‘virgin’ resources.

“Burger King’s decision to act, when others just talked, represents true industry leadership and progress towards a net-zero carbon reality for its restaurants.”

The home of the Whopper aims to get rid of all single-use plastic by 2025.