McDonald's pivots to sustainable Happy Meal toys globally

McDonald's aims to have every Happy Meal toy sold around the world more sustainable by the end of 2025. According to the company, the transition to more renewable, recycled, or certified materials for toys is already underway and will result in an approximately 90% reduction in virgin fossil fuel.

With the shift in consumer behaviour, the next generation of customers now care deeply about protecting the planet, and what can a company do to make its business more sustainable. As such, McDonald's is constantly exploring where it could drive greater impact, including the transformation of beloved icons like the Happy Meal, said chief sustainability officer Jenny McColloch. With this transition for its toys, McDonald's is working closely with suppliers, families, and play experts and engineers to introduce more sustainable, innovative designs and help drive demand for recycled materials.

Globally, the shift towards sustainable toys for McDonald's Happy Meals are currently underway in the UK and Ireland and completed in France. Fan-favourite movie characters such as Batman that used to be plastic figurines may reappear as 3D figures that can be built and decorated. In other instances such as board games, virgin fossil fuel-based plastic game pieces may be swapped out in favour of accessories made from certified plant-derived or recycled materials. Beyond the composition of the toys, the business has also explored recycling old toys into new restaurant trays and replacing plastic wrappers on the toys with new plant-based and premium certified fibre packaging. MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to McDonald's for additional information on the roll out in Asia Pacific.

Currently, McDonald’s is on track to meet its 2030 targets, achieving an 8.5% reduction in the absolute emissions of its restaurants and offices and a nearly 6% reduction in supply chain emissions intensity from 2015 baselines. Separately, the World Wildlife Fund said that by reducing conventional virgin plastic inputs by a projected 90%, the re-imagined toys will reduce the demand on fossil fuel plastic production to instead create new markets for responsibly-sourced renewable and recycled content.

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