McDonalds on Eco-Friendly Happy Meals
Every parent knows that being stuck on the road with a hungry kid is a dilemma. It’s so hard to find healthy fare on the road that even some Green Eco-Moms find themselves in McDonalds. More importantly, most American kids eat at McDonalds. Think of the huge environmental impact McDonalds could make by greening the Happy Meal and replacing the Cheap Plastic Crap Happy Meal toys with an eco-friendly alternative toy!
The Wall Street Journal recently published a report about McDonalds Corporate Sustainability Blog. I wasn’t familiar with McDonalds environmental initiatives, so I checked out their blog, and left a comment suggesting McDonalds could do even more for the environment by introducing organic Happy Meal selections and eco-friendly Happy Meal toys.
Take a look at McDonalds response via this link. And let me know what you think by leaving a comment below!
And by the way, their response came 13 days after I left the comment! (The date doesn’t show up on their blog, but I have it via email).
— Lynn
Copyright 2008 OrganicMania
6 Responses to “McDonalds on Eco-Friendly Happy Meals”
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Good for you! I’m so glad you pressed them for a response. I have feeling they would have ignored your comment if you hadn’t.
I’m not sure about you, but I’m dissapointed in the response. All about plastic this and plastic that, without actually addressing your suggestion itself – the Green Happy Meal. I know I for one would probably give in to the McDonald’s begging, ‘Please I go play!’ (he’s 2), if I didn’t have to bring that d%$# CPC toy home!
Oh, gosh, stay away as long as you can…I held off until age four or so…and now he’s like a little addict. I have to take a different way home so we don’t drive by the Golden Arches and answer questions like why we go there so rarely, when his friends go every week! — Lynn
Hi Lynn! I don’t see a real response to your concern, so much as corporate PR blather.
For example, when McDonald’s says that it has “made great strides to reduce the amount of material used in our Happy Meal toys,” I would love to have seen some concrete examples. How much less waste is incurred today versus 1 year ago? 5 years ago? 10 years ago?
Moreover, McDonald’s says that it “optimize[s] material usage during design.” I read this to mean that they maintain whatever original design was conjured but try to create the toy with as little waste as possible.
I would prefer to have read that they try to use as little material as possible in the original design. That certainly would have been more responsive to your question, and the fact that this was not said implies to me that it can’t be said. In other words, the “cheap plastic crap” will continue to be part of Happy Meals. What a shame.
Good for you for pushing this issue with them!
Thanks, Kristen. I still think they will do this when consumer demand forces them to – or a competitor pops up and starts taking away their business. That’s the way these things always work! — Lynn
I like your well though out post.
We don’t eat at McDonalds. My kids don’t even like it, thank goodness! My husband is a coach and we had to watch the video~ Super Size Me. One look at that and you may never eat there again. I know I can’t!
Yeah, well once one of those green to-go places is available all up and down the interstates, we won’t be going there again either. Right now the options are still so limited, we find ourselves there when stuck on the road. That is always the downfall!
[…] is a submission on McDonald’s Eco-Friendly Happy Meals. Reading the article I learned that McDonald’s has a Corporate Sustainability Blog. Is that, How to […]
Hi Lynn,
Although the box here says “Speak your mind”, I don’t think my internet connection is big enough to allow me to speak my whole mind (given the state of things today), so I’ll try to keep it to a “congrats” on your efforts and persistence with McD. Great job. I wish I could join you on the McD efforts, but I’m working on E-M and NYT and a couple others. (But, do let me know if I can help in some way.)
Your “dialogue” with McD reminds me of dialogues that I’ve had, and the breakthrough (even if it’s a mini-breakthrough, or even if one comes at all) typically comes only after alot of persistence and, perhaps, expanding the missionairy circle of people who the company (in this case, McD) might well think of as (as you know) “pieces of work.”
Good luck. Cheers for now.
[…] is a submission on McDonald’s Eco-Friendly Happy Meals. Reading the article I learned that McDonald’s has a Corporate Sustainability Blog. Is that, […]