ORLANDO, Fla. -- Fast food giant McDonald's may soon be the latest company to join the movement away from plastic drinking straws.

McDonald's announced Friday that it would begin rolling out paper straws at its McDonald's locations in the United Kingdom and Ireland, with the rollout completing in 2019.

Later this year, McDonald's will also test alternatives to plastic straws at restaurants in the United States, France, Sweden, Norway and Australia.

The company says it wants to develop scalable solutions, depending on the country. The U.S., for instance, has 14,000 restaurants.

Companies are under increasing pressure to get rid of plastic straws as reports mount of plastic straws ending up in the oceans and harming marine life.

SeaWorld, Ikea and Royal Caribbean have vowed to remove plastic straws and bags from their locations around the world.

The Environmental Protection Agency found Americans tossed more than 33 million tons of plastic in 2014 alone. The majority of it was not recycled.

Information from the Associated Press contributed to this report.