Firms unite to recycle waste at McDonald’s

Lurgan based packaging company, Huhtamaki and Delta Packaging Ltd, which both supply
paper-based products to McDonalds in the UK and Ireland, such as cup carriers and chip cartons, have joined forces in a bid to reuse and recycle off-cuts in their production processes to reduce the restaurant chains waste kilometres by up to 20,000 a year. General Manager at Huhtamaki Lurgan, Philip Woolsey alongside McDonalds franchisee, Des Lamph and Director of Delta Packaging Ltd, Neal McCone have provided a great example of local companies partnering for the greener good of both the local environment and mutual client McDonalds. — Lurgan based packaging company, Huhtamaki and Delta Packaging Ltd, which both supply paper-based products to McDonalds in the UK and Ireland, such as cup carriers and chip cartons, have joined forces in a bid to reuse and recycle off-cuts in their production processes to reduce the restaurant chains waste kilometres by up to 20,000 a year. General Manager at Huhtamaki Lurgan, Philip Woolsey alongside McDonalds franchisee, Des Lamph and Director of Delta Packaging Ltd, Neal McCone have provided a great example of local companies partnering for the greener good of both the local environment and mutual client McDonalds.

Global packaging giant, Huhtamaki and Belfast-based Delta packaging Ltd, which both supply paper-based products to McDonald’s, have partnered in a bid to reuse and recycle off-cuts in their own production process to reduce the restaurant chains’ waste kilometres by up to 20,000 per year.

The waste trimmings from the manufacture of McDonald’s carton packaging, made by Belfast based Delta Packaging Ltd, are now transported from Delta’s HQ in Belfast to Huhtamaki (Lurgan) Limited, the sole supplier of McDonald’s cup carriers just 30km away.

Huhtamaki then processes the McDonald’s carton by-product into a useable format before it is remanufactured into biodegradable moulded fibre products.

Philip Woolsey, General Manager of Huhtamaki which employs over 200 people, said: “Given the large quantity of molded fiber products, such as egg cartons and cup carriers, manufactured at our Lurgan factory each year, we continuously work with our recycling plant in Lisburn to increase our use of recycled materials, whilst improving quality and sustainability on behalf of customers such as McDonald’s.

“Our partnership with Delta Packaging has allowed us to provide McDonald’s with a ‘closed loop’ solution for a more traceable, environmentally and financially efficient method of transporting and recycling waste.

“As a result, the cup holders we supply to McDonald’s are made from 100% locally sourced recycled material.”

Huhtamaki Lurgan specialises in the production of moulded fibre products which are then supplied to major players within the food industry such as Noble Foods, Asda and more locally, Skea Eggs.