A crusade by two young girls in the UK to get rid of plastic toys in fast food chains is being supported as a small, but important step in the fight against environmental damage.
Southampton sisters Ella and Caitlin McEwan have gathered more than 400,000 signatures in a petition presented to McDonald's and Burger King, urging the companies to stop using plastic for their children's toys.
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The girls are pushing for more sustainable materials to be used in the toys offered by the fast-food giants.
"I like to eat at McDonald's and Burger King sometimes, but I don't like the toys - they're really bad for the environment," Ella told the BBC.
Noel Jhinku, a trustee of Our Seas Our Future, a local charitable trust focusing on protecting the environment, says removing plastic toys would not only have a positive impact on the environment but could also help inspire the next generation of Kiwis, provided children are educated as to why the change has taken place.
"Young people are most likely to adopt sustainable behaviours and make it a life-long habit. If these fast-food chains were brave enough to make changes and take the lead, they are in a prime position to influence the public."
A spokesperson for McDonald's New Zealand said while children already had the opportunity to choose a book instead of a toy, the company was "working to identify the biggest opportunities for more sustainable solutions for our Happy Meals".
The company also had initiatives including providing straws on request, and trialling fibre-based straws, the spokesperson said.
"We have a number of other projects and trials in the pipeline and continue to work with local suppliers and other partners to look at how we can help reduce the amount of plastics and packaging used in New Zealand, improve recycling infrastructure, and change behaviour with regards to litter."
Burger King New Zealand said that the fast-food chain stopped marketing directly to children here in 2014.
"As part of that initiative we stopped selling plastic toys," says a spokesperson. "The initiative runs concurrently to our other objective, which is to reduce waste."
"We would encourage our competitors to follow suit and minimise their impact on our environment."
In a statement to the BBC, the company said it was working on alternatives to plastic toys in other countries, with "our goal being to have a more sustainable toy solution in place by 2020".
McDonald's in the UK responded to the petition by telling the BBC they are considering using more sustainable materials, but that their decision was not directly caused by the girls.
"This is something we have been planning for a while, and is not as a result of the petition, but we hope this reassures [Ella and Caitlin] we are working hard to reduce our impact on the environment."
The company said customers in the UK would see a "near 60 percent reduction in the number of hard plastic toys given away in comparison to the first half of the year". The plastic toys in Happy Meals would be replaced by books, board games and soft toys.
Jhinku says Our Seas Our Future supports any change that leads to less plastic ending up in the environment.
"We find fast food branded materials (including toys) in our clean-up events nationwide. Toys with meals were implemented as early as the 1970s by large restaurant chains such as McDonald's, and no doubt there will be countless unused and discarded toys with no homes in our environment."
The girls' petition comes as the world's plastic problem reaches a breaking point. It is estimated that there are over five trillion pieces of plastic currently floating in the ocean, mainly ending up in one of five giant ocean garbage patches. According to the World Economic Forum, eight million tons of plastic enter the ocean every year, equivalent to the contents of a rubbish truck being dumped into the sea every minute.
And while some measures are being implemented to combat the problem - such as the banning of single-use plastic bags in New Zealand earlier this month - much more needs to be done, according to Jhinku.
"While the overall impact of removing plastic toys is small step, the value of the move will add to the growing public-awareness of the serious plastic waste issue we are all experiencing in New Zealand and globally."
Newshub.
