After two 7- and 10-year-old girls in 2019 became concerned about the environmental impact of McDonald’s and Burger King games, they started a petition for fast food companies to do something about it. The two sisters obtained 325,000 signatures and the two companies began taking action.
This Tuesday, McDonald’s vice president of global marketing, Amy Murray, said the brand is already working on this problem, listening to both parents and children.
“They worry about the planet, they worry about the animals, they worry about climate change,” Murray said.
In this sense, Director of Sustainability Jenny McCulloch stated that by 2025, toys in the Happy Meal will be more sustainable, which has dramatically reduced the use of plastic in the manufacture of one billion toys annually worldwide.
By the end of 2025, every game in every McDonald’s #happy Meal Sold around will be made of more #sustainable Materials. We innovate for creativity #ToysOfTheFuture From more renewable, recycled or certified materials! https://t.co/x3RbdozTEr pic.twitter.com/yb4wvoqA6m
– McDonaldsCorp September 21, 2021
The challenge is to reduce virgin plastic by 90%, include more recycled and plant-based plastic, as well as make more toys with paper and cardboard so the children themselves can put them together.
McCulloch said McDonald’s is working with scientists and children alike to make the new toys welcome by the latter. More sustainable toys have already been delivered in France, the UK and Ireland and so far they have been accepted by the markets.
It is expected that by January, American children will be able to get their toys, and by 2025, all countries where the brand is located will have access to the new toys.
For its part, Burger King said in 2019 that it would stop giving plastic toys to children and customers could return existing ones to use in making things like trays.
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