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

@UsedUpUsername

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 thought it was linked? www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-58711403

I totally agree, and cringe a bit internally when I see posts on here about party bags / stocking fillers / Christmas Eve boxes

Waferbiscuit, I see your plastic popper things and raise you 'silly string' - plastic neon coloured string in an aerosol which kids spray at each other. The 'fun' lasts about 30 seconds, leaves a trail of rubbish and an aerosol can to mess up the earth for centuries. Has to be the most pointless product in the history of commercialism.

See also party poppers and balloon arches.

There was a piece in the BBC the other day on the horror of wipes, even flushable ones. They contain plastic and will not degrade. They're clogging the sewage system, covering river banks, absolutely horrific 😢. Why people are still flushing them is impossible to understand but also they should just be banned? Plastic free wipes would do the same job surely?

Tat is in the eye of the beholder. Some of DS1's absolute favourite toys have been "tat", the toy gun from the fair, the £5 pack of toy soldiers. The playmobile on the other hand spent a couple of years repeatedly disintegrating on the playroom floor barely touched until I rage cleaned it into the wheelie bin. Because it always disintegrated I couldn't pass it on for further use to a more engaged child. Ditto for Tracey Island (although that was better played with,) but still an expensive toy that was just badly designed which made it totally impractical.

It's culture that needs to change. Not being drowned in token presents at Christmas or birthday parties. It needs to be acceptable to ask "do we really need to buy this?" and not be seen as mean. We can show love without stuff.

Built in obsolescence needs to go too.

@meditrina

It's made because people buy it

Back when I were a lass and dinosaurs roamed Earth, you left a party with a piece of cake wrapped in a paper napkin.

There is a huge amount of consumerism that needs to be turned back.

When demand evaporates, manufacturing will stop

Difficult isn't it. If it wasn't made people wouldn't buy it. When I was growing up there wasn't nearly the same amount of plastic (60s child) It was fine. These things snuck in, like plastic instead of foil and paper on sweets, plastic instead of paper bags. Plastic toys being cheap and only the wealthier being able to afford wooden toys ( and wooden toys being seen as middle class and 'worthy') And consumerism going up, and up, and up..... Only have to look at MN to see the divide between people trying to reduce consumption and people justifying every purchase. Mostly it's driving by govt/big business and 'boosting the economy'.

Look how the economy dropped when we weren't all buying tat/going on holidays during lockdowns.
Small businesses going bust and airlines too, so a huge scramble to get consumerist behaviour going again.
We need alternatives. I hate pointless tat and as an aspiring minimalist, buy as little as possible. But how do we square all this with people being able to make a living?

Honestly I tend to believe that one way or another we'll wipe ourselves out. Hopefully not taking too many other species with us. The world will keep on turning, and without our input, the planet will heal.
Possibly a few of us will survive, and balance of nature will be restored.
We're a blight on the planet.

I agree. I just went and bought smaller Xmas stockings so I’m not tempted to fill them up with crap.

Did you already have Christmas stockings, but you just wanted smaller ones? If so wouldn't it just have been better to exercise some self restraint, as now you've created demand for more xmas stockings to be made and presumably your old xmas stockings are now redundant.

Nobody actually needs xmas stockings. No stockings, no pressure to buy stocking fillers. Just put everything under the tree.

@LaCerbiatta

There was a piece in the BBC the other day on the horror of wipes, even flushable ones. They contain plastic and will not degrade. They're clogging the sewage system, covering river banks, absolutely horrific 😢. Why people are still flushing them is impossible to understand but also they should just be banned? Plastic free wipes would do the same job surely?

Yet suggest a pack of washable cloths that last years and works much better and the majority of people squeal about how disgusting it is (ditto washable nappies)

There is the flip side of the water/ energy/ deturgent for an extra load a week (storage is a practical issue in small homes) but that's still less than the resourcing, manufacture, distribution and disposal toll on the environment.

There are times that disposable wipes are genuinely useful and impractical to subsitute, but if the majority used for home and routine use were swapped that would make a significant difference.

Cos this is part of the problem really. If you're buying stuff that your kids don't really need because it's "tradition" that you have a stocking with associated stocking fillers, then you're choosing to prioritise your reasons that you use to justify to yourself for buying crap, over saving the planet. But you can't then look askance at literally everyone else doing the same when you're doing it too. "The kids need stockings. Its tradition". So, change your tradition.

People will look at something and justify to themselves why they need it. Perhaps they should look at it and justify to themselves why they don't need it.

What I don't understand is why manufacturers are getting away with making such cheap crap that breaks so quickly and therefore goes straight into landfill. Was saying to dh yesterday, my laundry basket is over 40 years old...My parents had it when I was a baby. The plastic is really strong. I doubt the other one I bought recently will be used by my DC as adults. It will probably break in a couple of years and have to be thrown out

Single use toys should go the way of straws and plastic cutlery - taboo.
Plasticised, non recyclable wrapping paper
Greetings cards with plastic glitter or other embellishments.
Spray bottles with non recyclable spray pumps (there are usually many different kinds of plastic in the mechanism to be suitable for recycling).
Plastic bottles (eg laundry liquid) which have a plastic sleeve by way of a label - this is usually a different kind of plastic and therefore mucks up recycling.
There must be loads more.
Even if these were banned in the UK, it would be a start.

I generally try to fill my DC stockings with stuff they need anyway...

So
Socks, pants, gloves, toothbrush, stationery for school, books, toiletries, hairbands

The only thing you can really do is not buy it. Unfortunately plenty of people still want it and buy it so more is made.

You can't ban it really because where do you draw the line? If you ban cheap plastic toys, what about cheap plastic homewares/decorations etc? What plastic items are acceptable?

There are times that disposable wipes are genuinely useful and impractical to subsitute, but if the majority used for home and routine use were swapped that would make a significant difference

I have a pile of traditional dishcloths (from the supermarket but knitted cotton, not J-cloths or microfibre) which I use for wiping down the kitchen and damp dusting – they are thrown into the washing machine after half a day so they never got a chance to get germy. I've been using the same half dozen cloths for at least 5 years; I can't even imagine how many wipes I might otherwise have used in that time.

When they get really stained and ragged, they get demoted to floorcloths or ones for really dirty jobs. I also save odd socks and cut up holey teeshirts for occasional throwaway jobs, eg wiping dog poo off shoes.

The issue of it being peoples income - surely people could divert to other jobs? Not overnight or anything but the economy is ever changing. We can break patterns. Eg apparently the demand for home electric charging points outweighs those being made.

Ecology and climate are linked. It’s all one system. There’s no point reducing emissions and limiting climate change only to fuck up the oceans another way.

Because people have children that have this shit, no child, no plastic shit
Lol you haven’t met my mother-in-law have you. Or read half the threads on here about buying “bits” in B&M, The Range, Dunelm, etc.

@EnidFrighten

Bit of a reach. They are really two separate issues. It’s not clear that wood toys come out ahead, if you factor the carbon used in the production and transport process.

For me, I care more about plastic waste than I do about carbon emissions. For ecological and health reasons.

If governments don’t ban these things then it need to become taboo to buy them. And acceptable to not give gifts but just enjoy celebrating together with traditions that are shared - music, food etc. Exchanging stuff is so unnecessary. But it’s a difficult pattern to break. That’s why I wonder if legislation is the way. I know myself I feel pressure from society to pass gifts at birthdays, provide party bags etc. Not enough people are confident enough to announce they aren’t doing for the sake of the environment. You end up worried that people will think you are just being cheap

Last week on my food shop I really took note of just how much plastic food is wrapped in. I don't know what the answer is.

I have kept my cheap Poundland Halloween and Christmas decorations for years. They get wheeled out each year. I'm only mentioning this as not everybody shopping there just disposes of party wear/decorations immediately. All shops be they MN faves like John Lewis, Lakeland or Boden, or B&M, Poundland and Home Bargains are guilty of selling tat and we, as consumers, are guilty of buying it.

@521Jeanie

There are times that disposable wipes are genuinely useful and impractical to subsitute, but if the majority used for home and routine use were swapped that would make a significant difference

I have a pile of traditional dishcloths (from the supermarket but knitted cotton, not J-cloths or microfibre) which I use for wiping down the kitchen and damp dusting – they are thrown into the washing machine after half a day so they never got a chance to get germy. I've been using the same half dozen cloths for at least 5 years; I can't even imagine how many wipes I might otherwise have used in that time.

When they get really stained and ragged, they get demoted to floorcloths or ones for really dirty jobs. I also save odd socks and cut up holey teeshirts for occasional throwaway jobs, eg wiping dog poo off shoes.

Putting a load of laundry on twice a day is hardly environmentally friendly!

Honestly I tend to believe that one way or another we'll wipe ourselves out. Hopefully not taking too many other species with us. The world will keep on turning, and without our input, the planet will heal

The planet is fine regardless. It has veered from ice-encrusted planet to a volcanic hellscape.

Possibly a few of us will survive, and balance of nature will be restored

‘Restored’ as if the conditions of now are the typical conditions of earth. We are literally in an Ice Age right now. It’s actually not the geological norm though.

We're a blight on the planet

Lol no

Plastic shite is still alowed to be produced,because stupid people still buy this stuff.

For years I picked up small toys and Christmas books in charity shops for stockings. My kids had no idea, were just having a great time. Don’t think we ever did party bags either - books and cake. All completely fine. Kids are just happy to be at a party with their mates and the excitement of that is what they remember

I feel sick thinking about all the plastic just sitting around in landfill. I was talking to my ma about maybe using washable nappies when we have a baby, and she was a bit disgusted about until we worked out that all the nappies she used for me and my siblings ( 3 of them) are all still in landfill. does anyone know where to start with cloth nappies?

There is no such thing as plastic tat from party bags just ungrateful kids who don’t value the stuff they get & don’t try to recycle. When a child is raised to value the stuff they receive even tiny toys get looked after - DNs all play with the stuff they get from party bags / crackers etc. They treat them like proper toys & when they break they will either be recycled or fixed.