How to Complete the Cycle of Disposable Plastic Toys
It’s everywhere. Cheap kazoo. Strings of beads Mardi Gras. Spider rings. Crazy straws. Magnifying glasses that only blur the image. Out-of-brand slinks. So many frisbees. Mini spray guns that don’t actually spray. I don’t buy a lot of plastic shit for my kids, but somehow it ends up in my house. This material is played for eleven seconds before being buried in a deep abyss, also known as our toy box.
There are many good reasons to try to end the cycle of disposable plastic toys: many are contaminated with industrial chemicals , the material is almost indestructible, and there is not much potential for creative, open play. But breaking the throw-away culture takes real work. Here are a few things you can do.
Invite your kids aboard
I support the classic method of reducing the amount of plastic baby crap: wait until your kids stop watching and get the hell out of the house. But know that if you want lasting change, it takes more than a few quick ninja moves. You have to explain to your children why we need to reduce our plastic consumption. Do it according to age – a preschooler probably won’t understand the intricacies of BPA and phthalates, but they can definitely feel sad that discarded plastic is harming baby sea turtles . Gina, a member of Facebook group Offspring , says she constantly talks with her 4-year-old daughter “doesn’t want to take out the extra trash.” Now she herself assimilates the idea.
Consider a toy “lifelong use”
For most parents, myself included, it is simply unrealistic to prohibit the use of plastic toys at home. And that’s okay. A friend recently offered me this Fisher Price door and I happily accepted it. I’ve seen it in action – kids love the Fisher Price door. It had already been passed on to three different children before it arrived at our home. The service life of this toy is long. Of course, I would have preferred to have only beautiful wooden toys like the Instagram masterpiece in my child’s room, but it’s also worth considering how long this item can be played with.
Start changing your ways
Some ideas to cut back on disposable toys:
- Try the toy exchange subscription service . For example, a toy library will send you two used toys per month (they make sure they clean and disinfect them).
- Organize toy sharing with friends. You can also exchange books and clothes.
- Teach children to fix things, not throw them away. iFixIt.com offers tips and guides for repairing household items like clocks and fans.
- On your children’s birthdays, ask for experiences, not things. Think about annual museum passes, skating rink admission, and tickets to sporting events.
Be change
You have no control over what other people give your child – birthday gifts, gift bags, little prizes from the treasure chest in the dentist’s office. But you can control the number of disposable toys that you add to the cycle. Rosen, a member of the Offspring Facebook group, tells us that she doesn’t buy gifts for Christmas or the birthday of her two-year-old son because she knows his grandparents will buy him tons of things. Another member named Deborah writes that whenever she throws a birthday party, she asks everyone to bring a packed book (new, used, or from their shelves) instead of a present, and the kids change places. “Everyone has something to deploy, we don’t have a ton of cheap toys, and their home libraries are freshening up a bit,” she explains.
Know that if you are not a member of a like-minded circle, such decisions are acts of resistance, and you may be surprised. At the end of my daughter’s fifth birthday party, one child came up to me and said that he had not received a bag of gifts. When I told him that we didn’t give out gift bags, he almost burst into tears. (His father handed him a giant loaf of bread from the table of food before tears shed.) Being a pioneer is not easy, but you can simply inspire other parents to follow your example, as they too begin to understand, “Wait. Are you saying I don’t have to deal with all this shit? “