Burger King is calling on the public to help it cut down on plastic waste by giving away free kids’ meals to people returning plastic toys.

Burger King is encouraging customers to return plastic toys to the restaurant chain as part of its new Meltdown campaign, which will see plastic toy amnesty bins placed in every restaurant across the UK. The plastic will be transformed into new play areas and restaurant items including interactive trays. Customers taking part between the 19th and 30th of September will get a free King Junior meal with any purchase of an adult meal.

Burger King UK marketing director Katie Evans said: “It is impossible to ignore the growing problem excessive plastic waste is causing and we are glad to be taking action. At Burger King we know we can positively contribute to finding new, more sustainable solutions, long term. We’re inviting customers to donate their unwanted plastic toys and working with Pentatonic, we’re excited to give them a fresh start. We recognise that by replacing them with a more sustainable solution there was an opportunity for us to make a radical change with Meltdown – one of the first of many.”

The fast food chain is also removing all plastic toys from future kids meals as part of a wider commitment to reduce its use of plastic, and admitted it was “spurred on” by Southampton sisters Ella and Caitlin McEwan’s petition against the use of plastic toys in children’s meals.

The Change.org petition, calling on Burger King and McDonald’s to remove plastic toys from its kids meals, has attracted half-a-million signatures.

Fernando Machado, global chief marketing officer at 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 plastic. Work is currently under way across all of our markets to look at how we can completely move away from non-biodegradable plastic toys by 2025.”