Removing Toys from Kids Meals
With the growing concern for the environment, fast food chains are doing their part by changing what they put in their kids' meals. In northern England, Burger King has begun collecting the hundreds and thousands of the toys and melting them. Burger King has encouraged customers to put the old toys in the collection bins which will be melted and turned into playground equipment and reusable tray tables. Fast food chains like McDonald's have also began the process of removing toys from the kids meals, but not completely as they are offering the choice of a toy or a bag of fruit.
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The removal of the toys from the kid's meals is just the beginning. Much of the problem still lies in the type of packaging these fast food chains use, such as their use of foam cups in most of their restaurants. There is also the fact that children love these toys, it being the experience.
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The removal of the toys from the kid's meals is just the beginning. Much of the problem still lies in the type of packaging these fast food chains use, such as their use of foam cups in most of their restaurants. There is also the fact that children love these toys, it being the experience.
It is a good start for these large companies but I agree more has to be done. Perhaps instead of offering a plastic toy they include art supplies such as crayons to color on their already recyclable bags. The crayon does not effect the ability for the paper to be recycled and the kids could continue to use the crayons until they can no longer be used, therefore fulfilling their purpose to its fullest extent.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Anja. Crayons would be a good idea because the kid could use them longer than they would be interested in a toy and won't harm the environment as much. There are bigger things that the companies could be focusing on to have a more positive impact on the environment, so I think those things should be focused on more than taking toys from kids.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how much waste the toys from the kids meals from really create? I'd imagine kids toys from fast food restaurants, in general, make up an extremely small amount of environmentally detrimental waste, and this is excluding the fact that not all fast food chains are ridding their meals of the toys. Nonetheless, I'd expect this to have a very small environmental impact. There is the thought though that this is, at the least, a step in the right direction. I'd question that, though, as well. I feel confident saying that these businesses are much more concerned with their profit, rather than the environment. What's important is that the consumer perceives the business as being an entity that cares about the environment, not whether or not they truly are. To that extent, acts such as taking out children's toys or getting rid of foam cups are merely token gestures. They make no change, but they give the impression that they do. What these corporations do, that really has a large effect on the environment, such as the industrial processes surrounding product creation and shipping, will most likely not be changed for a long time. I also find it interesting that the first act of environmental cleanliness taken by these businesses also happens to be anti-consumer.
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