Fast-food giant McDonald's is trialing a new scheme to collect unwanted plastic toys for recycling.

Seven restaurants in Ireland and the UK are hosting collection bins for parents and children as part of a four week trial.

The old toys will be recycled into new products - from coffee cups to bins, and outdoor play equipment to vegetable planters.

The restaurants will accept any plastic toy as McDonald's says it is seeking to gauge customers' reactions to toy recycling in-store, as part of its ongoing commitment to developing recycling solutions.

In Ireland, 'The Big Toy Take Back' scheme is being implemented at the McDonald's in Roscrea, Co Tipperary.

It will see customers return any plastic toy to the restaurant before two suppliers work with the returned plastic to create new items.

Marco Ruggeri is family marketing manager at McDonald's UK & Ireland.

He said: "We are always working on the Happy Meal, from reformulating to reduce fat, salt and sugar to increasing parental choice with new menu items and innovation in our gift offering.

"These trials allow family customers to participate in this continued improvement - they can choose between a toy or fruit bag, a trial we launched last month, as well as return their much-loved old toys to our restaurants for us to make into something new.

"Once we've determined what we and our suppliers are able to create with the recycled plastic, we're excited to thank the participating restaurants and their communities with the new products from their old toys."

Helen McFarlane, McDonald's sustainability manager, added: "It is really important we test this to ascertain what customers bring back to us and in turn what we are able to create with the old plastic toys.

"We want to ensure we're creating genuinely useful products from the toys children have enjoyed and finished playing with.

"This test will enable us to work with our suppliers to create a range of new items, maximising the amount of plastic we can recycle and reducing the need for the creation of new virgin plastic."

If successful, McDonald's says it will look to roll out the scheme to all restaurants in 2020.

The trial launches as 41 restaurants are currently trialing an offer to families to choose between a toy or fruit bag with a 'Happy Meal'.

Early next year, the business will be launching a test to offer a choice of a book or toy.

'The Big Toy Take Back' bins will be in restaurants from November 13th to December 11th.

Any plastic toy that fits in the bin will be welcome - there is a 17cm diameter entrance to the bins.