Now here is a challenge, and one you should keep in mind in the weeks leading up to XMAS. How difficult is it to buy presents that are either NOT made of plastic, or come with plastic packaging.
Do you get cross when you see how much plastic there is in gifts that you receive? Would you be able to ask your friends and family to not buy you anything made of, or packaged in plastic?
I recently watched my granddaughter excitedly launch herself into a mountain of birthday presents. My son and daughter-in-law, looked on, wondering where they were going to store all the extra toys of a five year old. At the side of the gifts, was a pile considerably higher, of plastic and packaging that seriously had no use for anything at all, and destined for the garbage.
Following the amount of public awareness, regarding the damaging effects of plastic waste; would you not think that toy manufacturers should now know better? And parents, ask yourself this; do you really need a large box with five small plastic items inside to be displayed by such a lot of outer garbage?
So think on this when you are out shopping this Xmas for gifts. Set yourself a no plastic challenge. COME ON!!!! Let’s give this a go.
According to research, The Xmas period will produce double the waste and most of it will be plastic. For example, in Britain we will probably use more than 40 million rolls of plastic tape in a year, that is a lot of sticky plastic heading to our bins and to landfill etc. Manufacturers will add plastic outers to hold toys in place, then display them in a box which will often be shrink wrapped, more plastic. The toy inside is likely to be plastic too. Are we ever going to learn? Not until we stop buying these items and manufacturers finally get the message.
Please look for alternatives, especially for our children. They may not understand your reasons for this at five years old, but they will when they get older and see our oceans in such a poor state. THEY WILL APPRECIATE YOU FOR TAKING ACTION NOW!
Plastic Toys can be replaced if we can all make the effort. Do it for your kids and grandchildren.
According to a survey carried out by The British Heart foundation, the average child will lose interest in a new toy after only 36 days and one in five kids will become bored with a must have toy in less than a day. Unfortunately, these results do not surprise me. I have had three kids, and would often explain to their grandparents that too many toys are just a waste of money. My father was terrible at keeping to this. He once bought my three year old daughter 52 pairs of plastic Barbie shoes in a huge box. I managed to get the said pieces of plastic into a jam jar, but poor Barbie remained naked most of her existence because my daughter could not be bothered to dress her. I wanted my kids to be able to enjoy their birthdays and Xmas’s. Too many gifts diluted their excitement. I also realised their attention to their playthings lasted longer as we told them to expect toys and gifts at birthdays and holidays..
It is hard isn’t it? Especially as a parent or grandparent to be enticed into wanting to treat your little lovelies when the there are so many affordable bits of, let’s face it, TACK on the shelves of cheap discount stores, markets and even supermarkets, All wanting us to purchase more plastic…..WHY? It is all about profit. No other reason.
This Xmas, I shall be buying my granddaughter a special trip, where we can make memories instead of garbage. She will still have something to open on Xmas day, but hopefully, we will be able to ditch the Plastic. It will hardly make a difference to the mountain of plastic heading for the tips over the holiday period. Thankfully, there will be others though who will take my view on this, and if our attitudes to this go in the more positive direction, perhaps in the not too distance future we will all be thinking about the future world our kids will inhabit.
So……….. Join me.
Ditch the plastic. I challenge you!
six things you can do to reduce plastic waste at christmas
- Look for gifts you can wrap in paper and tie with ribbon or hemp tape/raffia.
- Gifts made from wood, wool and fabric. Hand made and not packaged.
- Be a conscious consumer. where is it made? and what is it made of. Often a gift is more memorable if it has a story attached to it.
- Buy experiences. These are fantastic ways to make memories. More memorable and show thought.
- Do a Secret Santa. A much better way to get a quality present, instead of a lot of cheap gifts.
- Think carefully about whether the person you are giving it to, will treasure their gift or simply throw it away in a couple of months.
PLEASE let me know if you have any great ideas for reducing plastic over the Xmas period. I love your comments.
