Diners at McDonald's restaurants in Brazil will use environmentally friendly trays, manufactured by an Israeli startup

Diners at McDonald's restaurants in Brazil will use innovative, environmentally friendly trays, manufactured by an Israeli startup with a unique technology that turns waste into a green plastic substitute. The move is part of the strategy of Arcus Dorados, McDonald's largest franchisee in the world that operates restaurants in Latin America, to replace plastic products in favor of materials that prevent environmental pollution.
The substitute raw material for plastic is a unique patent of the cleantech startup UBQ Materials from Kibbutz Tze'elim. The plant has developed technology that processes waste of all types, including organic waste, papers, plastic scraps and more, decomposes them into molecular components and creates from them an innovative raw material used to make car spare parts, surfaces, bins, sports facilities and a variety of other products.
The new trays will carry the UBQ logo alongside the familiar McDoland's logo and will replace the old plastic trays. The move will begin with restaurants in the Brazilian cities of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Brasilia, Manaus in the Amazon and more. The companies note that the tray renewal project is just the tip of the iceberg in their potential collaboration, and they plan to develop more eco-friendly products for McDonald's using UBQ's raw material.
Tatu Biggio, CEO of UBQ Israel, said that every tonne processed at the plant means a solution to waste that would otherwise decompose after decades of carbon emissions into the atmosphere. The production of one tonne of UBQ saves future emissions of 12 tonnes of polluting gases. As much as McDonald's And UBQ will develop more products so that the network can reduce and even neutralize its carbon footprint.
UBQ Materials was founded in 2012 by Yehuda Pearl and Tato Biggio. The company's R&D center is located in Kibbutz Tze'elim. Along with the demand for UBQ material by automotive companies such as Daimler and Motherson and the international hanger manufacturer Mainetti, the company is in the process of setting up factories in the US and the Netherlands. UBQ's material has been certified by Quantis, the leading environmental impact assessment company, as the greenest thermoplastic material in the world.