According to the Ministry of Environment, every year, New Zealanders send approximately 2.5 million tonnes of waste to landfill and about 252,000 tonnes of this is plastic waste. With four Better Burger locations across New Zealand, the Mount Eden store took initiative and invested in innovative packaging to lower their environmental impact and build brand equity.

Method

• In celebration of Earth Day in 2018, Better Burger customers were served edible packaging wrapped around their infamous burgers. Packaged in wafer paper made from potato starch and water, the edible packaging encouraged their customers to eat everything on their plate, rubbish included. However, this wasn’t simple plain packaging, the burger chain went the distance to trademark their packaging with their logo and more visual branding with edible ink.
• Better Burger’s passion for environmental sustainability doesn’t stop here but goes beyond just a one-off marketing strategy. Since 2017, Better Burger has been teaming up with Innocent Packaging to create plant-based and compostable packaging for their burgers.
• “When we started Better Burger, it felt like all I could see was fast food rubbish dumped on the side of the road, on footpaths and in parks. I decided then and there that we weren’t going to contribute to the waste problem – we could do better”, says Rod Ballenden, General Manager, Better Burger. “I’d say we are the only fast food chain in all of Australasia with fully plant-based, compostable packaging so none of our front-of-house waste is sitting in landfill for any great period of time.”

The results

• The creation of edible packaging, along with ensuring their regular packaging is environmentally friendly has contributed significant reduction to their front-of-house plastic waste problem. Since October 2017, Better Burger have saved more than 366,000 plastic items from going to the landfill from its outlets. Ballenden estimates this number will reach one million by 2019.

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