No More McDonald’s Happy Meal Toys as We Know Them?
McDonald's Happy Meal toys will be drastically different in the coming years.
On Tuesday (Sept. 21), the fast food giant announced that they plan to stop using plastic in their iconic children's toys, which they typically produce more than 1 billion of annually. The change will take place globally by the end of 2025.
Moving forward, the company plans on working with their suppliers to use recycled, certified and renewable materials instead in an attempt to cut their use of virgin fossil fuel-based plastics 90 percent compared to their 2018 usage.
McDonald's locations in France, Ireland and the U.K. already made the switch to non-plastic toys in their Happy Meals back in 2018.
Yahoo! reports that the company wants to focus on interactive games, construction projects and paper crafts in their new Happy Meals. The company previously released a Batman figure that children could construct out of cardboard pieces, and they've also given out Pokemon cards.
The latest McDonald's toy craze is their Walt Disney World 50th Anniversary toy collection. (Yes, they're made of plastic.) The toy collections feature 50 different classic characters in statue form with holographic backgrounds featuring theme park vignettes. The toys will be available while supplies last through October, though numerous locations are already reporting they've sold out.
The featured characters in the "Fab 50" collection include: Celebration Mickey Mouse, Flounder, Timothy Mouse, Abu, Genie, Bambi, Celebration Dale, R2-D2, Celebration Minnie Mouse, Sebastian, Bruni, Tinker Bell, Bo Peep, Cheshire Cat, Miguel, Joe Gardner, Celebration Daisy Duck, Celebration Goofy, Piglet, Lumiere, Frozone, Dory, Dante, BB-8, Celebration Pluto, Lady Tramp, Jaq, Rocket, Edna Mode, Jiminy Cricket, Simba, Winnie The Pooh, Cogsworth, Gus, HeiHei, Mad Hatter, Stitch, Woody, Groot, Olaf, Pua, Pinocchio, Celebration Donald Duck, Dumbo, Pumbaa, Thumper, Celebration Chip, Nemo and Timon.