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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

single-use plastics

Burger King to Stop Giving Out Plastic Toys in U.K. Kids Meals

Many children are often more excited — at least initially — about the cheap toy in a fast food kids meal than the actual food. But those little hunks of plastic will now be a thing of the past at U.K. Burger Kings, CNN reports.

Responding to a Change.org petition from British sisters Ella and Caitlin McEwan that received more than 500,000 signatures, the company said it will stop giving out the toys, saving the planet from 320 tons of single-use plastic each year. Earlier this year, the European Union voted to ban single-use plastics by 2021, which may affect the U.K. depending on the outcome of Brexit.

It will be a while until this initiative comes to the U.S. — Burger King said it plans to get rid of non-biodegradable plastic toys in other markets by 2025.

The burger company, which recently rolled out a plant-based Whopper made with Impossible Foods across the U.S., will also place “plastic toy amnesty bins” in U.K. stores for customers to bring their old toys, whether they came from Burger King or not. Burger King has partnered with Pentatonic, a circular economy company, to melt down the toys to make useful items such as play areas and trays.

McDonald’s has also announced a sustainability initiative around plastics toys. The food giant  will launch a trial program at U.K. locations where customers can choose a piece of fruit, and eventually a book, instead of a toy. The company hopes to reduce its use of about 1,000 tons of plastic in Britain per year.

While scraping plastic toys is a win for sustainability, fast food restaurants have a long way to go on the sustainability front. After all, they still use plenty of single-use tableware, straws and cups. McDonald’s has pledged to reduce its waste by 2025, while Burger King seems to just be getting started.

Yelp Has a New Initiative to Help Reduce Plastic Waste in Restaurants

Yelp gave a nod to Earth Day this morning by launching a new initiative that rates restaurants’ eco-friendliness factor.

With Yelp’s Green Practices initiative, Yelp reviewers can answer questions around a restaurant’s takeout packaging — whether the business offers compostable containers, uses plastic bags, or has discounts for things like bringing your own reusable beverage mug. The interface to do so looks and functions much like any other Yelp rating tool:

According to a blog post by Yelp product manager Jason Purdy, Yelp will use the information from the surveys “to better understand restaurant behaviors across the country and inform how we surface information about restaurant sustainability for consumers.”

Single-use plastics are just the start. Purdy noted in the same blog post that Yelp is working with a number of different partners to gather and present information about multiple sustainability issues, including the State of California Air Resource Board, the City of Los Angeles Green Business Program, and Clean Water Action’s ReThink Disposable program.

Purdy’s post also said Yelp will eliminate single-use plastic cups, plates, and utensils from all U.S. offices by the end of 2019.

Reducing packaging waste is a huge topic in the restaurant industry right now, with an ever-growing number of businesses announcing various moves to tackle their reliance on single-use plastic. Starbucks announced last year it would eliminate single-use plastic straws from its 28,000 locations by 2020. McDonald’s is trying to find a more sustainable hot/cold cup. KFC has said it will convert to renewable plastic sources by 2025.

Beyond businesses, the EU vowed it will ban single-use plastics by 2021. Stateside, Seattle became the first major U.S. city to ban single-use plastics, in 2018; California and Washington, D.C. NYC currently has legislation in place to enact a similar ban.

To be honest, there are probably enough initiatives in place at this point to fill a 1,500-word post. The question is whether they’ll have enough of an effect on consumer behavior to change our relationship with single-use plastics in restaurants. To be sure, programs like Yelp’s will get people thinking more about how much waste gets created just by getting a to-go order. Now it’s a matter of using these types of initiatives to get consumers beyond thinking and into action.

EU to Ban Single-Use Plastics by 2021

Yesterday, the European Parliament voted to ban single-use plastics — like straws, plates, coffee stirrers and lids, to-go containers, and cutlery — by 2021 (h/t The Guardian). The ban will go into effect in all EU member states and possibly the U.K., depending on what happens with Brexit.

The European Commission first proposed this ban last year, calling out the 10 single-use plastic items that make up 70 percent of all litter in EU waters and beaches. With this vote, the ban is official.

The legislation also outlines goals that by 2025 plastic bottles should be made of 25 percent recycled content, and that by 2029 90 percent of them should be recycled.

This is part of a global initiative to reduce plastic waste in oceans, which shakes out to about 8 million metric tons per year — all of which will take at least 450 years to biodegrade. Those are some pretty bleak statistics, but there’s some hope when you see countries around the world starting to instill plastic-reducing initiatives. In addition to this EU ban, Kenya has instated the world’s toughest ban on plastic bags, Montreal has axed single-use plastic bags, and Taiwan has plans to get rid of all single-use plastics by 2030.

Europe isn’t the only one trying to cut down on plastic consumption. Here in the U.S., we’ve also made some moves to eliminate single-use plastics, mostly straws. Starbucks announced it will eliminate plastic straws from all 28,000 of its locations by 2020, replacing them with a sort of adult sippy-cup lid. Starbuck’s home city of Seattle became the first major U.S. city to ban single-use plastics (straws, utensils, etc.) last year, followed by California and Washington, D.C. New York City might be next.

I’m not sure how quickly the U.S. will follow in Europe’s footsteps with a wide-reaching plastic ban of its own. We’re too obsessed with convenience and instant gratification. More feasibly, my colleague Jenn recently suggested that if food delivery companies got on board with plastic reduction, maybe replacing plastic cutlery with biodegradable options, that could be a massive help in our to-go-loving culture. Hopefully one or the other will happen before our oceans become even more clogged with plastics.