The fast food chain will also take old plastic toys and melt them down for re-purposing.

Do you remember the two little girls, Caitlin and Ella, who started a petition earlier this summer asking fast food restaurants to get rid of their disposable plastic toys? They have been successful – a wonderful reminder that change can come even from the smallest and youngest of citizens.

Burger King just announced it will remove plastic toys from all Junior Meals in the United Kingdom in an effort to help the environment. The move is projected to spare 320 tonnes of plastic annually. Burger King locations will also accept old single-use plastic toys (not only theirs) for collection, offering a free Junior meal in exchange.

These old toys will be sorted, cleaned, shredded, and melted down – hence the name of the campaign, ‘Meltdown’. Here is a statement on Burger King’s website.

The company has not yet said if it intends to do the same in the United States and elsewhere around the world, but if such a step has been taken in the UK, it’s not a stretch to imagine the same would happen on this side of the Atlantic.