Plastic oceans

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Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00

Written by editor

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Last week, thanks to your generous donation, we went to McDonald’s annual shareholder meeting in Chicago to call on McDonald’s execs and shareholders to seriously address its ocean-polluting plastic straw problem. With us was marine biologist Dr. Elaine Leung.

Dr. Elaine Leung in Chicago after the meeting

Dr. Elaine presented a shareholder proposal on plastic straws filed by a SumOfUs member, and was able to make the journey thanks to your donation.

In the run up to the meeting, SumOfUs members were all over the media, and put McDonald’s firmly in the spotlight for its polluting ways. Feeling the pressure, McDonald’s execs announced, “we continue to work to find a more sustainable solution for plastic straws globally,” while at the same time fumbling to justify why shareholders shouldn’t vote for our proposal.... It wasn’t a good look for the fast food giant.

Ultimately, with execs pressuring the biggest investors to vote with the company, our proposal gathered modest support. But the good news is that McDonald’s is changing its ways thanks to SumOfUs members like you.

Since SumOfUs members got involved, McDonald’s in the UK has started phasing out plastic straws, and just last week announced that it would start removing plastic straws from its restaurants in Brussels, Belgium as part of a pilot from September.

And all this comes after more than 480,000 of you signed the petition, sent over 21,000 emails to McDonald’s executives, and shared videos and images on social media thousands upon thousands of times. Right before the AGM, between you, you sent emails to over 230 of your pension funds calling on these major investors to vote for our proposal. Incredible!

When we put pressure on McDonald’s to act, it does.

We’re at a tipping point in the fight to save the planet from plastic pollution. Thousands of restaurants, institutions and venues around the globe are already voluntarily stopping using plastic straws -- even the Queen of England.

Together, if we keep up the pressure, we will force this huge corporation to join them wherever it operates, before it’s too late for our marine wildlife. Watch this space for our next action!

Before I go, here’s a special message from Dr. Elaine:

"I'm really grateful to all of you who cared enough about our campaign to take action. Even though McDonald's voted against our proposal, we got its attention and it can't ignore us now! We had so much amazing media coverage for this important campaign, and it's because of all of you. We are sending a clear message to businesses around the world that we want them to take action to reduce their single use plastics. Thank you so much for helping our oceans and all the critters that depend on our oceans, including us!"

Thanks for everything you do,
Sondhya, Elaine, Tom, Anna and the team at SumOfUs

P.S: McDonald’s dropping plastic straws in the UK and its statements this week shows our pressure is working, but there is still a long way to go. Your donation to get Dr. Elaine to McDonald's meeting went a long way -- can you chip in a few coins each month to make sure McDonald’s kicks its straw habit globally?

More information:

McDonald's Shareholders to Vote This Week on Whether to Ban the Plastic Straw, Fortune, 22 May 2018
McDonald’s under pressure to ban plastic straws, NBC News, 23 May 2018
McDonald's Might Phase Out Plastic Straws In The U.S., Too, Refinery 29, 23 May 2018
McDonald's sees off plastic straw campaign, BBC, 24 May 2018
Why won't McDonald's ban plastic straws in the U.S.?, CBS News, 24 May 2018

SumOfUs is a community of people from around the world committed to curbing the growing power of corporations. We want to buy from, work for and invest in companies that respect the environment, treat their workers well and respect democracy. And we’re not afraid to stand up to them when they don’t.

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