McDonald's restaurants are in 118 countries and territories around the world and serve 68 million customers each day. McDonald's operates over 35,000 restaurants worldwide. It's estimated that Americans alone use 1/2 MILLION plastic straws DAILY! It's impossible to fathom how many are used each day globally. It is a fact that the equivalent of five grocery bags of plastic trash for every foot of coastline spills into the oceans each year.

Plastic straws are a huge contributor to ocean garbage. Adding together all 192 countries in the world with a significant coastal population, researchers report that 4 million to 12 million metric tons of plastic washed offshore in 2010 alone, or about 1.5% to 4.5% of the world’s total plastic production—enough to cover every foot of coastline on the planet. This is abhorrent! Read study here: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/347/6223/768

NO living being in the sea, air or on land is unaffected. Fish and wildlife are becoming toxic. Plastic is killing marine animals and birds at an alarming rate. It's found in the stomachs of countless species. Consequently, the toxins from the plastics have entered our food chain, threatening human health! In the most polluted places in the ocean, the mass of plastic exceeds the amount of plankton six times over!

Read more here: http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/health/case_studies/plastics.html

The McDonalds brand, their "Golden Arches" are recognized throughout the world. They should stand as an environmentally conscious leader; a fine example that ALL fast food chains and restaurants should follow. We implore McDonalds to lead the way and start handing out biodegradable paper straws and stop all use of plastics in their restaurants worldwide!