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McDonald’s has long maintained the # 1 spot as the largest fast food chain in the United States, based purely on revenue – and while it will likely always be home to beloved burgers, fries, and sodas, the brand has had to evolve the years to stay at # 1. This means some menu items have been dropped (RIP, Mighty Wings), recipes have evolved (hello, McNuggets no preservative), and new products have been added to offerings (welcome , McPlant). But now, the company plans to make a major change to one of its most beloved products: the Happy Meal. Read on to find out what new permanent change is being made to McDonald’s most loved meal.
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On September 21, McDonald’s pledged to dramatically reduce the use of plastic in its Happy Meal toys around the world. The company said changes will start now and roll out around the world so that all McDonald’s toys are made from more sustainable materials by 2025. This change will result in an estimated 90% reduction in plastic from fossil fuels in Happy Meals. toys, which is roughly “the size of the entire population of Washington DC, eliminating plastics from their lives for a year,” according to McDonald’s.
“Today, we take a step forward to continue having fun while helping to build a more resilient planet for the next generation,” the company said in a statement. “Our ambition is that every toy sold in a Happy Meal is sustainable, made from more renewable materials, recycled or certified as bio-based materials and derived from certified plants and fibers.”
According to CNN, McDonald’s is evaluating various options for these more durable toys. For example, instead of plastic figures, young customers could get paper-based 3D toys that they would assemble on their own. Other toys could include Pokémon trading cards, which are already on the US market, and board games with traditional plastic parts replaced by paper coins, which could start appearing in US Happy Meals as early as January. 2022, reports CNN.
“We are dramatically reducing plastics in toys while delivering all of the games, action heroes and collectibles that continue to spark children’s imaginations and love of play,” McDonald’s said in its statement.
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This global initiative follows a backlash against McDonald’s for its plastic toys. In 2019, the British sisters Ella and Caitlin McEwan, then nine and seven, started a petition calling on McDonald’s and Burger King to stop giving out plastic toys with their children’s meals. The petition garnered over 566,000 signatures and quite quickly McDonald’s began testing books, board games and stuffed toys in UK Happy Meals.
However, during a press briefing, Jenny mccollochMcDonald’s chief sustainability officer noted that some of the changes were already underway before the 2019 petition, according to CNN. “We’ve been innovating in our toys for quite some time,” she said, noting that the company “started introducing some of these more sustainable materials” as early as 2018.
She added: “Having said that, we are always listening to our customers and families, and understand where we can do better.”
It wasn’t just McDonald’s that heard the McEwan sisters’ plea. In 2019, Burger King pledged to stop distributing plastic toys with children’s meals in Britain and pledged to also eliminate all non-biodegradable toys from its restaurants around the world by 2025, according to The New York Times.
The fast food chain also encouraged customers to drop off old toys in collection bins, which it provided to recycling company Pentatonic to melt them down and turn into play equipment and reusable trays.
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