Petition to stop McDonald’s, Burger King offering plastic toys nears 500,000 signatures

A petition started by two British children asking fast food restaurants to discontinue plastic toys in kids’ meals has attracted over 300,000 signatures and is quickly nearing half a million.

In the Change.org petition, the two children, identified as “Ella and Caitlin aged 9 and 7,” describe learning in school about plastic’s detrimental effects on the environment and oceans.

{mosads}“We like to go to eat at Burger King and McDonald’s, but children only play with the plastic toys they give us for a few minutes before they get thrown away and harm animals and pollute the sea,” the petition states.

“We want anything they give to us to be sustainable so we can protect the planet for us and for future generations,” they add.

The two add that while they are making personal efforts to recycle as much as possible, they started the petition out of a desire to do more.

“It’s not enough to make recyclable plastic toys – big, rich companies shouldn’t be making toys out of plastic at all,” they write.

McDonald’s is among a number of global companies seeking to limit waste by cutting back on plastic straw distribution. 

And the UK last year became the first country to propose a full ban on single-use plastic straws and similar products amid concerns about ocean pollution.