AIBU to see the loom band craze as just more plastic waste to end on beaches and land fill

[Barbierella]

AIBU to not be able to see anything about loom bands except the fact they will be adding more tiny bits of plastic all over the planet for land fill and birds to choke on.

Yes I know there are bigger environmental issues so am I just being a total grump or does anyone else feel like this.

Urbandlandlord, what do you mean by "subsistence farm"? If you mean "a piece of land owned by a farmer where they feed their family of the proceeds" then that is much better in terms of dignity, exploitation, sustainable development etc etc. As for better conditions in factories, the chemicals used to make these plastics are truly toxic. They kill children. Sweat shops are definitely not harmless, and the things that are made may be cheap, but not on a global level.

justashopgirl have you tried cotton? Much cotton is organic and sustainable, and has none of the problems of plastic/wool/silk.

What exactly is a 7 year old going to make with unableached linen or hand dyed wool in under an hour?
Unless those products are also hand spun/ hand woven they have gone through a series of processes as well.

And they are expensive. Fine for the experienced sewer or knitter but not something you'd give a beginner.

Loom bands allow a child to create something quickly and cheaply and could be the catalyst to encouraging them to go onto other more sustainable crafts. But having spent a year doing weaving on a loom at age 10 and then basket weaving at 11 I can see exactly why kids prefer loom bands!

Some paper and some pencil's, maybe?

i don't see them as any different to any other childrens toy or craft item which are mostly made of plastic.

i have seen them entertain even the most energetic of children for hours, help them concentrate, learn a skill etc. i hadn't heard of the craze and all my dd's friends had them in school. they all clubbed together and gave her a few bands each and taught her how to make them. i thought that was lovely of them.

Cotton is just as bad I'm afraid - it takes 20,000l of water to make ONE T-shirt..... and according to the environmentalists

"Unsustainable cotton farming, with massive inputs of water and pesticides, has already been responsible for the destruction of large-scale ecosystems such as the Aral Sea in central Asia and the deteriorating health and livelihoods of people living there.

There are NO resources that can be harvested without it having an effect on people or the environment.

We all need to sit in a hut weaving lentils.... and having no fun at all... unless weaving lentils floats your boat of course...

I accept that they are not good for the environment, but they wouldn't be at the top of my list of environmental concerns, and as others have said, there are actually some positives to the hobby.

It's like the plastic bag thing. I use my own bags whenever possible, and am very well aware of the damage caused by plastic bags in landfill and to wildlife on land and sea. But I get really annoyed by the smug brigade exiting their large diesel cars with a few pristine, hessian bags for life (probably to fill with over packaged food) and thinking they are being environmentally friendly.

Exactly shopgirl.
A sensible solution is to consume less overall, including toys. Which is why I don't have a problem with dds loom bands. As a family our consumption of stuff is (these days since I wised up) way way way below average.

Yes there are bigger environment issues but tackling the little things also make a difference

I agree tackling the little things is a great idea - which is why I use public transport and don't have a car. I think that has a bigger impact on the environment than a few loom bands and also means less congestion in towns and cities.

I hate them , for those reasons . My dc are not allowed them and accept the reasons why .
My kids own barely any toys and we have always avoided short term play things with long term Eco affects .
I said this on another thread and was told I was a kill joy . Am happy and proud to be that .

I really can't stand them, nothing to do with environmental reasons if I'm completely honest, but simply because it's one more thing to do at the start of every lesson.

Pupils at my school are only allowed to wear one each. It should be bloody NONE imo, but the charity prefects are selling them, so the money spent on some goes to the school charity. This just means that we waste time either waiting for kids to take off an entire armful and put them away, or we waste time on confiscation.

Also, they look bloody awful, but now I HAVE to wear a god-awful multi-coloured one because the most lovely child in my Year 7 class made it for me. Le sigh.

Oh great, now Ive heard it all, its employment for poor overseas workers. Aren't we such wonderful people, they should count themselves lucky! About £1 a day, great!

I don't know much about it, but it seems to be a way for children - both boys and girls, unusually - to be creative, which is surely a good thing.

They do remind me of friendship bracelets - I remember when I was going through a tough time at primary school my dad bought a starter pack and we spent hours making them. Good times mine were better than his and I still make them now!

They were also a way of really concentrating on something - I think loom bands are probably the same. I've thought about trying loom making but I think the end result is a bit too bright and tacky!

I agree with you.

There is a mother at DS1's school who is going on some kind of charitable trip to a very deprived area of Asia, and she is asking every child in the school to make a loom band bracelet so that she has something cheap and cheerful to give out to the children. I'm a wee bit appalled, actually, precisely because of the plastic waste issue. (Apparently they are discouraged from handing out any kind of food or stationery, I have no real clue as to why no stationery!)

I wouldn't have minded anything like as much if they'd made them from plaited wool.

DD weaves friendship bracelets with yarn.
The yarn is made of acrylic because that's what's cheap & available, so just another chemical product.

Oh for goodness sake is it all plastic toys we're going to wring our hands over?

The amount of plastic in 3000 bands which will be the sum total of my son's current addiction with it will be equal to around a handful of Lego(if that).

Pointless thread.

I think they're fab. They get kids off screens,good for fine motor skills,good for creativity,good for maths skills(bartering).....

I've just come back from a long tramp along the beach with the dog. Happy to report I didn't see a single loom band anywhere!

I like it how a reasonable discussion about the environment and getting people exchanging ideas about how we can improve our attitudes and substitute non-sustainable items with more benign alternatives can easily be derailed simply by introducing the words "hand-wringing" (helpful).

they look like elastic for braces to me is that how the got invented a bored teen?

Only, ONLY on MN.

Can't you teach them how to weave?

But the difference with lego and loom bands is clear - my kids play with my old lego( 30 yrs old I'm guessing). Do you think loom bands have that life span ?
It's the latest craze - no different from all the other shit crazes .
I wish the toy manufactures were forced to think seriously about this. Sadly though money is god .
Katiekay
There's a beach / island somewhere that all the plastic bobbly bits wash up on. Because of currents the waste from plastic production all end up in the same place . I wish I knew better facts to back me up !

Put your worries to better use. This is just one thing amongst a million that's not good for the environment.

Live near an incinerator. No landfill worries here! ;)

145 tonnes of garbage lands in Hawaii