Drones help Martineau Gardens rise up against plastic

Airborne bread delivery helps reduce impact on the natural world.

Edgbaston community group Martineau Gardens took delivery of bread from the sky to mark the switch of Roberts bakery’s top selling loaves into a revolutionary new paper packaging.

Doing something ‘drastic about plastic’, Roberts has reduced plastic in its bread bags by 53% – switching its core ranges into sustainably sourced paper. It’s the first bakery brand in the UK to do so.

Dubbed the Bread Arrows, the drones performed an acrobatic display to mark the new paper bags hitting shelves of 300 Tesco stores across Birmingham and the UK – giving the nation’s bread buyers an environmentally-friendly option.

Martineau Gardens is an independent charity with volunteers on its therapeutic horticulture programme caring for the gardens. In addition, hundreds of school children come to learn about the environment and thousands of people from Birmingham people visit the gardens annually to enjoy its peace and tranquillity. It is a much-valued green space in an urban environment and sustainability is at the heart of all it does.

Gill Millburn, Director at Martineau Gardens, said: “We are passionate about taking plastic out of our lives and spend a lot of time encouraging others to do the same. It’s great to see a bread manufacturer taking responsibility and making it easy for the people of Birmingham to do the right thing.”

UK bakeries produce 10,700 tonnes of hard-to-recycle plastic packaging every year. Most goes straight to landfill or it must be taken to specialist recycling points. Roberts is the first bakery brand to come up with a bag that can be put into the paper or mixed recycling bin.

Local stockist details can be found here. #RiseUpAgainstPlastic. Find out more about Martineau Gardens here.