This year's top toys - next year's landfill

[sillybillyme]

The Toy Retailers Asso tips for this year's top toys has been published- and amongst a list of 50 odd - no toy with any remotely green aspect made it into the list! Unless you count a recycling truck which can teach kids about recycling -but it is made of plastic so will spend hundreds of years in landfill....

I got really depressed seeing all the toys in the refuse site - so this year for March birthday I got me wee boy a cardboard rocket www.babybill.co.uk/products/ETOYS/Eco_Toys.html and it has lasted,and lasted, it gets played with, packed away, comes back and in a few months when it gets really tacky it will become an art project.

With Santa due to visit are there any more ideas out there for green tot toys?

Surely plastic ain't that fantastic?

[snowleopard]

Weeell, if stuff biodegrades, it adds carbon to the atmosphere. If it doesn't, ie if it stays in landfill for 500 years without breaking down, it sequesters carbon and so should reduce global warming. I think researchers are currently looking at making the most of the fact that we make a lot of oil into plastic and landfill it, as a way to reduce the carbon released into the atmosphere - though we do need to make sure we're making the right types of plastic and landfilling them safely.

IMO it is important to use up oil as fast as we can to make it expensive and force a market-driven alternative solution to the energy crisis. Companies and govts. will invest big-time in renewable energy, once economics forces them to. And non-biodegradable plastic might turn out to be one of the best ways of using up oil - far less damaging than burning it as aircraft fuel for example.

However having said that I would never, ever landfill a plastic toy after 1 year of use anyway. When no longer needed they would go to friends, a charity shop, nursery, ebay or freecycle.

[sillybillyme]

The rocket gets recycled its made of cardboard from recycled materials and I am told I can put it into my wee box when its finished with. I try to pass on plastic toys but find that they don't really go the distance. Most of electronics and our local shops aren't that keen on this sort of stuff now.

[snowleopard]

Was not dissing your cardboard rocket though - it sounds great. Just not sure plastic is all evil.