Preston: Freddie Flintoff teams up with McDonald’s to promote 6ft bins

McDonald’s is partnering with Roadchef motorway services to roll out a range of litter bins which are more than six foot tall and designed to be within easy reach for truck drivers.

The 6ft8ins tall bins are so big, they nearly make 6ft3ins Preston-born sporting legend Flintoff look small.

The bins have been designed to combat roadside littering and are ‘cab height’ to make it easier for truck, lorry and HGV drivers to pop their litter in when stopping off at service stations.

In total, 52 two metre tall bins will be rolled out across the country at 30 Roadchef service stations over the summer.

Flintoff, who now presents TV car series Top Gear, was among the first to test out the bins – on behalf of the drivers of tall vehicles who they have been created for.

The McDonald’s and Roadchef partnership and service station bin roll-out comes as new research reveals that:

• Eight in 10 adults fear we're still decades aways from winning the battle to keep Britain tidy.
• Almost half (44 per cent) of people feel littering has been especially prevalent along roadsides during the last 12 months, such as on A-roads and motorways.
• 81 per cent believe the amount of rubbish discarded across the country is a massive problem, with almost half (43 per cent) ‘strongly agreeing’ that people have become too complacent when it comes to littering.
• 39 per cent consider littering to be a city-based problem - arguing this is where more effort should be made to encourage people to take more care when throwing items away.
• 83 per cent  think everyone needs to take responsibility for littering - and 38 per cent appear to be doing just that as they participated in a litter pick at one time or another. 17 per cent  of those who haven’t taken part in a litter pick think they will at some point in the future.

The Top Gear presenter joined the team in welcoming the new bins to Chester as McDonald’s prepares to conduct the UK’s biggest ever litter pick this weekend as they call on everyone to help them ‘Keep it Clean’.

McDonald's new 6ft bins nearly make Preston-born sporting legend, Freddie Flintoff, look small

Freddie said: “What a good idea to help curb motorway and service station rubbish with something so simple.

“I look forward to seeing the bins rolled out when I’m on the road. It’s in everyone’s interest to be more responsible and accountable when it comes to littering – and this new partnership between McDonald’s and Roadchef offers an easy way for anyone driving a taller vehicle to do so - now there’s no reason to drop the ball by littering.”

Louise Page, McDonald’s UK & Ireland's Head of Consumer Communication & Partnerships, said: “Littering is socially unacceptable and for 40 years our restaurant teams have walked miles across the UK and Ireland each week, collecting other people's discarded litter.

“But there is still work to be done and we are committed to finding innovative ways to make it easier than ever before to keep our communities clean.

“Our partnership with Roadchef is a perfect example of how changing the way drivers dispose of their litter by creating bins perfect for their vehicle height. We believe this truly will make a huge difference to motorway litter and road safety.”

Head of Marketing for Roadchef, Amanda Mason, added: “We’re thrilled to have partnered with McDonald’s UK to create this run of bins to help combat roadside littering up and down the country. Making it easier for lorry drivers to dispose of their litter will help reduce the amount that ends up on the UK’s motorways – which can be a danger to other road users as well as damaging to the environment .

“Together with McDonald’s UK, we’re on a mission to help people be more responsible with their litter and hopefully this initiative is another step towards that for us all.”

Across the UK and Ireland, McDonald’s staff collect 27 tonnes of litter every year, on litter patrols that take place around every restaurant three times a day, covering a total of 5,000 miles each week (where they collect litter from any origin, not just their own). In addition, McDonald’s has recycling units in over 1,100 of its restaurants, it recycles coffee cups from all coffee retailers and continues to develop a new industry standard for paper straws.

The ’cab height’ bin rollout comes after Highways England estimated that it costs around £6m per year to collect litter from motorways, with more than 150,000 sacks of litter collected every year. 

This positive step in curbing roadside litter, follows McDonald’s partnership with LitterLotto – the app that rewards people for binning their litter. By capturing and uploading an image of them binning litter on the LitterLotto app customers will be entered into a prize draw to win £25,000. You can download the LitterLotto App online.