Two determined little girls are rallying thousands of people to sign a petition demanding that Burger King and McDonald's stop giving away free plastic toys - and they have almost met their goal of half a million signatures.

With the help of their mother, 9-year-old Ella and 7-year-old Caitlin Wood started an online Change.org petition in order to persuade the fast food giants to do away with the wasteful toys that come with Happy Meals and Junior Meals.

Since launching the petition, the youngsters have garnered over 350,000 signatures of their 500,000 goal - and the call to action has already accumulated further support from adults and children alike.

"We've been learning all about the environment at school and the problem of plastic. It made us very sad to see how plastic harms wildlife and pollutes the ocean, and we want to change this," reads the petition. "That's why we want Burger King and McDonald's to think of the environment and stop giving plastic toys with their kids meals.

"We like to go to eat at Burger King and McDonald's, but children only play with the plastic toys they give us for a few minutes before they get thrown away and harm animals and pollute the sea. We want anything they give us to be sustainable so we can protect the planet for us and for future generations," they continued.

In addition to the girls making a compelling argument, the amount of signatures on the petition almost doubled after reporters with the BBC 1's "War on Plastic" followed the determined young activists to the McDonald's headquarters in order to hand-deliver the petition.

Since the little girls' story started being picked up by international news outlets, Burger King and McDonald's have both emailed statements to CNBC detailing their plans for making their free toys more sustainable.

(WATCH the powerful BBC coverage below) - Photo by BBC1

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