Burger King has announced that they will no longer include plastic toys included with childrens' meals in the UK.

Burger King has announced that they will no longer include plastic toys included with childrens' meals in the UK.

The fast food chain has asked customers to bring unwanted plastic toys to their UK restaurants between September 19 and 20th for them to recycle them into new ways to play. In exchange, when you buy a full price meal you get a kids meal free.

The ‘Meltdown’ recycling process will see the toys be separated, sorted, cleaned, chipped and then transformed into play areas and other everyday restaurant items including trays to give them a new lease of life.

Burger King said: “At Burger King UK we want to lead the way in making a change and reducing our environmental impact. Removing single use plastic toys is one way in which we can do this. We are committed to acting responsibly and sustainability is a key part of this.”

The company has teamed up with Pentatonic, a smaller, local, UK re-processor who allow greater visibility into the recycling process. Pentatonic have a network of over 100 recycling partners with transparency on their processing capabilities.

Burger King claims the initiative will save 320 tonnes of single use plastic every year. This move will help them reach their 2025 goal to make all packaging 100% reusable, recyclable or compostable.

Fernando Merchado, Chief Marketing Officer of Burger King, said: “We are a global brand, and the UK market will be leading the way in making this first step towards change, which is part of our wider commitment on reducing plastics. Work is currently underway across all of our markets to look at how we can completely move away from non-bio-degradable plastic toys by 2023.”

McDonald’s have also committed to reducing plastic in their kids’ meals. From next year, you will be able to choose whether to have a book or a toy.

Photograph: Mike Mozart