**UPDATE 20 July 2018: In response to public pressure, McDonalds is moving away from plastic straws Australia, the UK and Ireland with testing of alternatives in Belgium, US, France, Sweden and Norway. While all companies need to urgently reduce their plastic footprints, some disabled people need a robust flexible straw that works in hot and cold drinks in order to drink. It’s vital that we continue to pressure companies to do what’s right by people as well as the environment.**
**UPDATE: On 28 March 2018 McDonald's announced it is ditching plastic straws from its UK restaurants, phasing them out from May. This is great news, but we need McDonald's to do stop using plastic straws worldwide, so keep signing and sharing!**
McDonald's uses millions of plastic straws every single day. Used for just a few seconds, then thrown away, many end up polluting our oceans.
Small, light, and hard to avoid, it’s no wonder plastic straws dumped into the sea get stuck in sea turtles’ nostrils, lodged in the stomachs of baby seabirds, and end up in our food chain after being eaten by fish.
If we can get McDonald's to ditch its dirty habit we can stop millions of plastic straws clogging up our oceans and killing the animals that live in them.
Tell McDonald's to stop using plastic straws that pollute our oceans today.
Plastic pollution is one of the biggest threats to our oceans, and straws are one of the most common plastic items found in beach cleanups, according to Greenpeace.
A total of 8 million tonnes of plastic ends up in our seas every year -- that’s the equivalent to five shopping bags of waste on every foot of coastline in the world! As a result it’s estimated that every year a million seabirds and 100,000 marine animals -- such as sea turtles -- die.
Plastic doesn’t degrade, but is broken up into ever smaller pieces. So if that straw isn’t swallowed whole by a large bird or turtle, the bits it breaks into can be eaten by fish or fed to chicks starving to death with stomachs full of plastic.
Taking millions of plastic straws out of use would be a major step towards cleaning up our seas and protecting wildlife from this plastic menace.
Take action now, tell McDonald's to stop using plastic straws that pollute our oceans.
We know that when SumOfUs members like you stand up for what’s right, together we can force them to change. After all we’ve done it before.
We’ve forced McDonald's -- along with companies like Starbucks, and KFC -- to commit to sourcing 100% responsible palm oil. When we expose the ugly side of corporate giants -- like McDonald's -- they take action to protect their brand. And in doing so we score a massive victory for our planet.
Take action now, tell McDonald's to stop using plastic straws that pollute our oceans.
More information
Sky News. 28 March 2018.
The Independent. 18 April 2018.
The Guardian. 30 July 2017.
CBC News. 13 July 2017.
Greenpeace. 10 March 2017.
The Guardian. 3 May 2017.
Xarxanet. 27 April 2017.