McDonald's will phase out plastic straws across Australia by 2020, starting with a trial of paper straws at two restaurants from next month.

Key points: McDonald's says it will start trial of paper straws in two restaurants from August

McDonald's says it will start trial of paper straws in two restaurants from August Greenpeace welcomes decision to reduce consumption of single-use plastic

Greenpeace welcomes decision to reduce consumption of single-use plastic Environmental groups say Australians use about 10 million plastic straws every day

In a statement, McDonald's Australia director of supply chain Robert Sexton said the company had been working for some time to find appropriate alternatives.

"We know plastic straws is a topic our customers are passionate about and we will find a viable solution," Mr Sexton said.

"As one of the world's largest restaurant businesses, we know we have the responsibility and opportunity to make significant change."

The announcement comes ahead of the second series of the ABC's War On Waste program, which tackles the issue of single-use plastic straws.

Environmental groups say Australians use about 10 million straws every day, or 3.5 billion a year.

In one of the new episodes of War On Waste, host Craig Reucassel goes to the company's Australian headquarters with a prop dubbed "McChokey" — a sea turtle sculpture made of straws.

Sorry, this video has expired War on Waste's Craig Reucassel takes 'McChokey' to McDonald's HQ in Sydney

In the show Reucassel contends that McChokey should be the new McDonald's mascot, as it's more appropriate than Grimace or the Hamburglar.

"Straws aren't the biggest part of plastic pollution but they definitely have an impact and they have an impact on marine life, we've seen examples of turtles choking on them in the past," Reucassel told ABC News.

"It's one of those single-use plastic items that hopefully we can get out of the stream.

"Unless you have a disability and you really need a plastic straw, in many cases you don't have to use them."

Asked if he thought War On Waste had influenced the McDonald's decision, Reucassel said he believed it was "a happy coincidence".

"McChokey" featured in the second series of the ABC's War On Waste program. ( ABC News: Emily Clark )

"I was quite surprised by the announcement from McDonald's as we did take a new logo for them, McChokey, awhile ago and their initial response was not great," he said.

"They said they were looking at what was happening overseas and it's great to see that [they have] now moved to actually saying they're going to try and phase them out here, which is the same as [what is] happening in the UK.

"I have no idea if War On Waste had any impact on it — it's just a happy coincidence, I think."

Greenpeace Australia has applauded the fast-food chain's decision.

"McDonald's move to phase out plastic straws is a great step in the right direction. We'd love to see them really making efforts to decrease all their single-use plastics," Greenpeace campaigner Zoe Deans said.

"Greepeace overall would like to see an end to all single-use plastics. It's just a huge problem.

"Not only does it end up harming our wildlife but it ends up as microplastics in our oceans that get into our food chain, and ultimately affects human health as well."

War On Waste is about to launch its second season and Reucassel, centre, has single-use plastic straws in his sights. ( ABC Radio Adelaide: Malcolm Sutton )

The McDonald's announcement follows Starbucks' decision last week to eliminate plastic straws from all its store within two years, citing the environmental threat to oceans.

Woolworths has also said it will stop selling plastic straws by the end of 2018. The change will save 134 million plastic straws from going into circulation each year.

Reucassel said the McDonald's move could potentially remove more than that.

"We couldn't get exact figures out of McDonald's but they have about a million customers a day, so even if half of those are taking a straw, we're talking about 180 million straws a year, so it's a large part of the straw footprint," he said.