Nerd Church - I'm Not (Totally) Lovin' It: Why I'm Not Entirely Happy (Meal) That They're Ditching The Plastic Toys

 

Recently, I saw that McDonalds are gonna stop supplying hard plastic toys in their kids' meals in the UK and Ireland.

This was due to a petition from two smol eco-warriors, who were annoyed at the lack of recyclable-ness. 

And good on them. We all need to be working on cutting down on the amount of plastic we use.

But when I heard the news, I wasn't entirely happy. 

Of course, I was happy that there'd be less plastic thrown away and ending up in landfill or the water system!

...But I still had some reservations.

Because I knew how much it would hurt a lot of kids whose families are on low incomes. 

Yes, you read that right. Those of you who know will know - those of you who don't? I'll explain.




But first, let’s lay some ground-rules. This post is not:

- a criticism of the intentions of this campaign

- an invitation to be mean to smol children trying to make the world a better place

- an attempt to make large corporations look like angels

- making excuses for McDonalds

- making excuses for plastic pollution and/or the mass production of single-use plastic 

- suggesting we shouldn't be cutting down on plastic consumption




This post is:

- saying we need to think through the consequences of our actions

- highlighting that those with enough don't think about the material effect on those who have less

- suggesting that people need to be more aware of the deprivations in our societies

- encouraging EVERYONE to cut down on plastics, and look out for our environment.




Also, I’m gonna refer to McDonalds and Happy Meals here, but please assume that most of it applies to pretty much any fast-food place which gives out plastic toys. Ok? Ok.




As I’ve mentioned before, my country, Wales, is relatively poor.

I’ve always been fairly comfortable, because my parents and grandparents worked hard and made a lot of sacrifices – but I’ve never been ‘well-off’ either. 

And the area that I grew up in, going to state school, had far more poor kids than rich ones.

I can think of lots of kids whose families were struggling to put food on the table.

So, sitting there between the small handful of well-off kids, and the many underprivileged kids, I stayed pretty down-to-earth (imho.) 

And I’m aware that some kids? Their only toys came from McDonalds.

Some kids might have some toys that didn’t come from McDonalds, ofc, but Happy Meal toys can and did help to pad-out even the smallest toy-box.

Now, I’m not naive enough to think that fast-food chains came up with the whole give-you-a-toy thing in order to make children from low-income households happy, and encourage their social and neurological development.





The toys are, and always have been, a gimmick to get you to buy their food. Sometimes it doubles up as promo for a film or a type of toy or whatever.

But whichever way you slice it, if it didn’t keep that till ringing, it would’ve been ditched a long time ago.





In this instance, though, we had an unintended consequence of allowing kids from poorer backgrounds to get what were often brand-name toys.

These were kids whose parents could never have afforded Barbie, TY, Matchbox, My Little Pony, Disney, etc. 

...beginning to see why our generation is socially conscious.
Plus, y'know, as the Internet has pointed out, they didn't make her president for nothing!

Via Giphy

...But they could maybe afford a Happy Meal, as a treat.

Two birds with one stone, after all – the kid gets a hot meal and a toy that you couldn’t otherwise afford to give them.

 
And the brands meant that the kids would have the same social clout – or more – in the playground as their better-off classmates.




I can remember, as a tiny child, being jealous as hell of a kid with a backpack full of My Little Pony toys.

I didn’t know she was from a struggling family. 

I didn’t know she had those toys because they came free with a meal – and because her relatives were ordering Happy Meals instead of their usual McD’s order, so that they could get her the toys.

I just thought it was so cool that her Bampi* got her all those toys! And it meant that the social disparities between us remained invisible for just that little bit longer.



*Grandfather





Which brings us to plastic.

Plastic is a problem. No doubt.

Hooman beans have created a substance for single-use which is not, in fact, a temporary substance. Plastic stays around for ever and does not biodegrade. 

Via Giphy

What it is does do is break down to such small parts that it enters the food-chain, and the bloodstream of animals and possibly humans.

That’s aside from all the other issues with plastic, such as clogging reefs and injuring animals. Yup, it’s not great stuff.





So cutting down on plastic – especially single-use, throw-away, plastic – is a good thing.

The problem is that people would rather be a greater inconvenience to people with less societal privilege, such as disabled people for whom plastic straws are often the best way to stay hydrated, rather than people with larger societal power, e.g. synthetic fishing nets from industrial fishing, or nurdles from industrial plastic production.

That’s not to say that we shouldn’t cut down on plastic straws when and where we can dearest nerdlets! 

(...trying to convey nuance on the internet while thinking of all the ways this could be taken the wrong way is so much fun!)

But it’s interesting when the steps that get taken affect marginalised people, rather than corporations. #JustSaying.




And so we come to the McDonald’s toys...

I am pleased to read that there will be soft toys available as well as paper toys (which will last until the car ride home, most likely,) and books (never a bad thing.) - which is awesome, and will hopefully mitigate some of the social problems here.

It certainly lessens those reservations I had when I first heard they were cutting out the toys.

The kids who pushed for the toys to be removed were, with all due respect, children from a fairly comfortable background. 

Children who are clearly unfamiliar with the concept that some kids in the UK in 2020 do not have m/any toys.

And I don’t blame them for that – I wish all kids could grow up blissfully unaware of deprivation. 

But no-one’s sat them down, and explained to them that for some kids, this is the only toy they’re gonna get.

No adult has taken the responsibility of letting them know that, actually, there are people less off than them and sometimes an unintended consequence of our actions is that we hurt those who are already at a disadvantage.

They simply haven’t had to think that way – the way that made me say, on learning that our library was staying closed over last Christmas’ school holidays*: but what about the kids?

Because there were always kids at the library over the holidays – and they weren’t the bookish kids, either.

The kids who were a permanent installation at the library, whether holiday-time or after school, were the ones whose parents worked, and couldn’t afford childcare. 

Or else they were the kids for whom home wasn’t always a safe place.

But the library was warm, safe, and had adult supervision.

An unintended consequence that government funding never takes account of.


*I realise that 2020 has closed everything like libraries etc. But I think we can all agree that 2020 is a special circumstance.






We can all (hopefully) agree that eco activism is, on the whole, a positive thing – and one that we all need to take an interest in.

We all need to take care of our planet – and to say that we’re in the middle of an environmental crisis is an understatement.

But I can't help thinking that sometimes we need to think things through, so that we aren't taking things from those who can least afford to lose them.

The TL;DR:

• Plastic pollution sucks

• We need to reduce our plastic consumption

• We need to think through our actions to reduce plastic waste, in order to avoid harming others in the process

• If you're well-off, please teach your kids that they have it better than a lot of people

• Society needs to take better care of poorer kids

What do you think?

Do you think we need to teach kids more about social consequences?

Or should reducing plastics be the goal, no matter the social costs?

Talk to me! 💖💬

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Previous Nerd Church Posts:

• Nerd Church - I Scaled Back on Blogging in August. Have I Learned Anything?

• Nerd Church - Caffeinated Current Events: Explaining the Headlines

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