Why is plastic tat even allowed to be produced and sold?

[Bbnel]

Like the stuff that comes in party bags and last 24 hours? With the state of the climate surely these sort of things (and many other products I am sure) should be banned worldwide? I am sure it’s not that straightforward, and is not as easy as just banning it. And there is probably an endless list of other things that could be banned. Just with Xmas coming up and all the stocking fillers etc I am just feeling a bit sad that we are still pushing this consumerism worldwide

Because people have children that have this shit, no child, no plastic shit

I totally agree. But no idea how it'll happen.

And it's not just plastic tat. It's general consumerism. It needs to stop. Even if everyone stopped buying plastic, but still bought each other 10s of Christmas presents that are totally unneeded, but "environmentally friendly", then that's not environmentally friendly.

We're down to buying secondhand in as many areas as possible (mainly furniture, clothes, books and toys), but even then I find I buy more than we need, just because it's there and I can. So i realise I still need to work on my mindset too.

Humans are getting more and more greedy. Alongside all the other ways we're deteriorating. It's quite depressing...

I have made it clear this year....birthday and xmas....only chocs or flowers...no crap....dont need or want anything....

🙌

People won’t stop. The government needs to ban single use plastic.

Capitalism. If enough people don't buy stuff the factories will stop making it.

@Userrr

Because people have children that have this shit, no child, no plastic shit

I know someone who is “childfree by choice” that has hundreds of plastic makeup brushes and bags and a whole army of those grim funko pop dolls. Plastic shit is not just produced for children.

Yup! And to think we use finite resources like fossil fuels to ship shitty plastic toys across an ocean so we can buy them. Utter waste.

The apotheosis of this are popper toys, those rainbow coloured plastic things where kids push the elevated circles in and out. - really a defining object of mass consumerism, waste, environmental disregard and end of the world madness.

Because they make a lot of money for people who don’t give a shit.

I totally agree. If companies sell plastic, some people will buy plastic because they think that if the government allows it, well...it can't be anything wrong with it! Why is it even allowed in the first place? Surely as consumers we don't need that kind of 'choice'.

@GrrrlPwr

Capitalism. If enough people don't buy stuff the factories will stop making it.

But if the factories stop making it, and governments stop factories from making it, the public won't buy it!

Plastic garden furniture and plastic grass are my bugbear. Not content with filling our houses with it, we're now filling up our gardens too!
I don't know what the answer is really. But yes we've said food, books, plants for Christmas or useful stuff like socks, gloves etc. Teenage children so not fighting off the mountain of plastic anymore thank goodness

Start by writing letters and boycotting
these fuckers

Someone needs to organise a class action against the following top plastic producers in the world:
US-based ExxonMobil, Dow, Sinopec, Indorama Ventures, Saudi Aramco, PetroChina, LyondellBasell, Reliance Industries, Braskem, Alpek SA de CV, Borealis, Lotte Chemical, INEOS, Total, Jiangsu Hailun Petrochemical, Far Eastern New Century, Formosa Plastics Corporation, China Energy Investment Group, PTT and China Resources.

It needs to be taken up by Greenpeace or WWF or even a private capital group prepared to found the class action preparation in exchange for a percentage of damages

the fact that we still get unwanted post baffles me too

And me. Yesterday I got an Aldi Christmas catalogue through the door. Over fifty pages, on heavyweight paper. I was so angry I emailed them to complain, and I said the era of junk mail should be over now.

I agree that people should generally just buy less and think before they buy, but tat is really relative, isn't it. I have playmobil sets in the house that get a lot less interest than a couple of old McDonald's toys or the disgusting 'squishy fishy'.

Part of the problem is defining tat. An item that seems useless to most people might be considered essential to a few.

As a person who already has trouble finding consumer products because of severe allergies, my mind immediately goes to a world where our allowed products choices are dictated by the whims of a centralized committee and the needs of vulnerable or minority groups are not considered.

It's only disposable if people treat it as such. The whole point of plastic is its durability for many uses so it's ironic it's bought and binned the way it is. And people seem to want something new all the time - Christmas decorations are a good example. I'm only in my late 30s but things have changed so quickly from my childhood when Xmas decorations were brought out year after year and kept in a box in the loft until next year. Now so many seem to flock to Poundland to get new ones every year.

Yes, too much plastic and tatt sold, and sadly loads of it will be bought for Christmas,

This seems snobbish. Plastic waste is a problem in an ecological sense (and probably our health).

But plastic production overall is like 4% of emissions, this is both for essential and nonessential purposes.

Possibly wooden toys and more durable items would cause more emissions in both their production and shipping.

I mean, you probably are just snobbish about plastic tat, but wrapping it up in some sort of concern about climate change.

I don’t like plastic straws in dolphin’s noses either, but you do get how this is an ecological issue, and not climate related, right?

I agree about wooden toys. People who throw out all their plastic and replace with wooden, or demand friends and family only provide wooden toys which have been shipped from China anyway. Buying less and second hand is the only way to reduce waste and shipping.

It'd be nice if it was more acceptable to give 2nd hand gifts - I happily buy my DC second hand toys/clothes if I can find the thing I'm looking for on ebay/the charity shop but I'd feel awkward buying a second hand gift unless I was close to the person/knew their views on second hand stuff.

If people stopped buying it there wouldn't be any money to be made and they'd stop making it. I think bigger toys in plastic aren't so bad as long as people pass them on when they're done with them, we have toys that have been passed along 5 plus times! I don't think wood is necessarily better overall, it tends to break more easily or become stained, and during covid for example the instruction to childminders etc was not to use wood as it couldn't be cleaned at the temp required. The ideal would be people buy more reasonable amounts of stuff and shop second hand more often.

Although speaking of ebay - I'm looking for a duplo train at the moment and by the time I've paid for delivery I could just get a new one

Actually I think the party bag tat is much less of an issue than toys that have more plastic in them like walkers that get discarded after a few months. They should be made to last and passed on and on and on.