Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Eight-year-old boy writes letter urging McDonald’s to remove plastic Happy Meal toys

Fast food giant recently announced plans to become more environmentally friendly

Wednesday 17 July 2019 15:59 BST

(Getty Images)

An eight-year-old boy has written an open letter to McDonald's imploring the fast food restaurant to remove its plastic Happy Meal toys.

Jacob Douglas, from Basildon, Essex, decided to write an open letter to the food giant due to his concern that excess plastic is "affecting the world around us".

The letter made such an impact that McDonald's issued a response directly to the schoolboy.

Jacob's letter read: "Dear McDonald staff, please can you stop putting toys in Happy Meals? I would be very happy.

"The toy are made of plastic and it is affecting the world around us. It is killing a lot of animails [sic]."

Jacob Douglas' handwritten letter addressed to McDonald's (SWNS)

Jacob's mother, Kirsty Douglas, explained that her son has cared about environmental issues for "some time".

"Jacob loves animals, including polar bears, and we've been doing thinks like swapping shower gels for soaps for a while, and he was thinking about what more he could do, so he thought about getting in touch with McDonald's as they're a huge company which could make a difference," the 33-year-old said.

"We hope that by making it an open letter it will make more people environmentally aware and encourage others to do the same."

In a response sent directly to the young boy, a McDonald's spokesperson said the company is "very impressed by how passionate he is about protecting the environment".

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures

Show all 15

1/15Plastic waste across the world: in pictures

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures

A father and son on a makeshift boat made from styrofoam paddle through a garbage filled river as they collect plastic bottles that they can sell in junkshops in Manila. The father and son team earn some three US dollars a day retrieving recyclables from the river.

AFP/Getty

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures

A composite image of items found on the shore of the Thames Estuary in Rainham, Kent. Tons of plastic and other waste lines areas along the Thames Estuary shoreline, an important feeding ground for wading birds and other marine wildlife.

Getty Images

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures

Children collect plastic water bottles among the garbage washed ashore at the Manila Bay. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, at current rates of pollution, there will likely be more plastic in the sea than fish by 2050.

AFP/Getty

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures

Plastics and other detritus line the shore of the Thames Estuary. In December 2017 Britain joined the other 193 UN countries and signed up to a resolution to help eliminate marine litter and microplastics in the sea. It is estimated that about eight million metric tons of plastic find their way into the world's oceans every year. Once in the Ocean plastic can take hundreds of years to degrade, all the while breaking down into smaller and smaller 'microplastics,' which can be consumed by marine animals, and find their way into the human food chain.

Getty

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures

A dump site in Manila in 2013. The Philippines financial capital banned disposable plastic shopping bags and styrofoam food containers, as part of escalating efforts across the nation's capital to curb rubbish that exacerbates deadly flooding.

AFP/Getty Images

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures

Children swims in the sea full of garbage in North Jakarta, Indonesia.

Getty

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures

An Indian woman holds a jar filled with Yamuna river water polluted with froth and toxic foam to be used for rituals at the river bank in New Delhi, India. The Yamuna River, like all other holy rivers in India, has been massively polluted for decades now. The river that originates in a glacier in the pristine and unpolluted Himalayas, and flows through Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh before merging with the Ganges River in Allahabad, once used to be the lifeline of the Indian capital. Currently, it is no more than a large, open sewer that is choking with industrial and domestic discharge that includes plastic, flowers and debris and has virtually no aquatic life.

EPA

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures

Plastic waste is washed up on South Troon beach in Scotland. Recent reports by scientists have confirmed, plastics dumped in the world oceans are reaching a dangerous level with micro plastic particles now being found inside filter feeding animals and amongst sand grains on our beaches.

Getty

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures

Children collect plastic to be sold and recycled, in a polluted river in suburban Manila. The city's trash disposal agency traps solid waste floating down waterways that was thrown into the water by residents of slums along riverbanks upstream.

AFP/Getty

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures

View of the Carpayo Beach in La Punta, Callao, some 15 km of Lima. In 2013, the NGO VIDA labeled the Carpayo Beach as the most polluted in the country - 40 tons of trash on each 500m2.

AFP/Getty

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures

Trash from Kamilo Beach in Hawaii.

Gabriella Levine/Flickr

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures

A scavenger collects plastic cups for recycling in a river covered with rubbish near Pluit dam in Jakarta.

Reuters

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures

Rubbish fills Omoa beach in Honduras. Floating masses of garbage offshore from some of the Caribbean's pristine beaches are testimony to a vast and growing problem of plastic pollution heedlessly dumped in our oceans, locals, activists and experts say.

AFP/Getty

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures

A man climbs down to a garbage filled river in Manila. Plastic rubbish will outweigh fish in the oceans by 2050 unless the world takes drastic action to recycle the material, a report warned in 2016.

AFP/Getty

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures

Garbage on East Beach, Henderson Island (Pitcairn Islands), in the south Pacific Ocean. The uninhabited island has been found to have the world's highest density of waste plastic, with more than 3,500 additional pieces of litter washing ashore daily at just one of its beaches.

EPA

The representative added that the fast food chain is "passionate about doing our bit to protect the environment for generations to come".

"On Happy Meals toys, we are proud that our restaurants are places that families like to go and eat, and our Happy Meal is part of the enjoyment for customers," the response continued.

"However, we fully understand that Jacob would like us to think about using different materials for our toys. And McDonald's is looking at alternatives that will keep our Happy Meals fun without causing damage to our environment."

The McDonald's spokesperson stated that the company will be offering customers an increased number of books, board games and soft toys in Happy Meals in the near future, which will result in "a near 60 per cent reduction in the number of hard plastic toys given away in comparison to the first half of the year".

Earlier this year, McDonald's announced plans to remove plastic lids from its McFlurry ice cream desserts and single-use plastic from its salad bowls.

Beth Hart, supply chain director for McDonald's UK and Ireland, said: "It's the latest step in our sustainability journey."

Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events

Last month, it was reported that two schoolgirls had petitioned for McDonald's and Burger King to remove plastic toys from meals marketed at children on their menus.

The sisters, Ella and Caitlin McEwan, have garnered just under 400,000 signatures on their Change.org petition.

"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 young girls stated.

Four months ago, the sisters received a response from Burger King, which outlined that the petition had been passed on to the company's management team.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies