A 7-year-old boy has started a revolution after he asked his fellow students to boycott McDonald's Happy Meals.

William Weir wrote an open letter to McDonald's demanding they ditch plastic toys which are given away with their happy meals because they pollute the environment.

William told his mum Carrie, 41, that he wanted to write to the burger chain after she told him how bad the toys were for the planet. He went on to write the letter and his mother promised to send it to McDonald's and also share it in some online sites.

Then an excited William went to school and told everyone about it and his teachers invited him to read his letter during assembly to Dunchurch Infant School's 170 pupils.

Many of the students agreed with the content of the letter and are now joining him in taking a stand.

Boy, 7, writes a letter asking kids to boycott McDonald

Ian Dewes, the executive headteacher at Dunchurch Infant school and Nursery, was so impressed by the way William spoke to the school that he believes he could have a future as a politician.

Mr Dewes said:

William came in with his letter and explained, very articulately considering his age, what he'd written and the reasons behind it.

Clearly he's very well-informed about environmental matters.

I spoke to William and asked him if he would like to speak to the children in assembly about it.

Speaking in assembly itself is a fairly daunting thing to do in front of 170 children, but he was very happy to do that.

So he read out his letter and then we asked him some questions about it and he explained it all.

It was quite statesman-like really - he's perhaps a budding politician.

He had a really good grasp of the issues and could explain it really clearly and concisely and the children were really interested in it.

The children straight away were very interested in the subject.

It certainly got the children all thinking about [the issue]. Although they all love McDonald's and Happy Meals, they did all admit that the toys are not the sort of things that they keep or used for a very long time.


 

Parents said their children are now starting to ask to not have the toys after hearing about William's letter.

The young boy's letter prompted McDonald's to invite William and his sister Francesca, 4, to a feedback group to get their thoughts on restaurant's environmental innovations.

Boy, 7, writes a letter asking kids to boycott McDonald

A McDonald’s spokesperson said:

We really appreciate William and Francesca getting in contact.

We would like to assure them that the reduction and use of plastics is a hugely important issue for our business.

We are committed to reducing our environmental impact and we can, and want to, be part of the solution – for example with our move from recyclable plastic straws to paper ones.

Happy Meal toys provide fun for children and families playing in our restaurants, but also provide many more fun filled hours at home for a long time too.

When families are finished playing with them, they can also be recycled. At points in the year we also offer book promotions swapping out toys for books. Parents can also use the vouchers printed on their child’s Happy Meal box to purchase a book for £1 or download an eBook for free.

Sometimes we invite people that have contacted us to come in to discuss our latest ideas and innovations and share their thoughts and feedback, so we will be contacting William and Francesca’s family shortly to see if they would like to participate in one of these sessions.


 

Boy, 7, writes a letter asking kids to boycott McDonald