Willshee’s is helping McDonald’s to reduce its environmental footprint with its segregated waste collection vehicle.

This vehicle primarily recovers segregated food and glass at the point of collection and delivers the food waste to a local Anaerobic Digestion (AD) plant. The glass is sent to a processing facility where it is melted and moulded into new products.

Dean Willshee, managing director of Willshee’s said: “We’re constantly looking for new ways to help our customers meet their environmental obligations and this is increasingly becoming a priority, especially in the food and drink industry.

“The capacity for the treatment of food waste has increased greatly with a number of new anaerobic digestion facilities opening within the Midlands, enabling the sector to gain real momentum in the region.

“Anaerobic digestion is our favoured means of treatment for food waste as it uses 100% of the waste processed; it creates green energy and a nutrient rich digestate that can be used in the agriculture industry as a fertilizer.

“Our vehicle is enabling companies, such as McDonalds, to take advantage of these more environmentally friendly methods to recycle waste, offering a one stop waste solution!”

Sarah McLean, franchise owner of 16 McDonalds restaurants in the Midlands, said: “We take our responsibilities very seriously when it comes to all aspects of the environment and more broadly McDonald’s Restaurants Ltd is always looking for ways to improve waste disposal and recycling.

“The service from Willshee’s provides our business with a system to separate out our food and general waste, which in turn is helping us to fulfil our business target of zero waste to landfill by 2020.

“All of our restaurants have front of house recycling facilities allowing customers to separate their waste packaging for recycling. It therefore makes sense that the volumes created back of house are handled in an equally responsible manner, by a contractor like Willshee’s who shares those values.”

In 2018, the UK government launched A Green Future plan which aims to eliminate all avoidable waste by 2050.*

*Source:‘A Green Future’ report visit (See Chapter 4 page 83)

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