to think we should just ban this crap

[Knitwit101]

The world is full of plastic waste and yet we still produce and import this shit to put in party bags. Ds was at a party today with 30 kids, so I assume 30 pieces of plastic crap. It doesn't even work. I bet 28 of them are lost, broken or in the bin by the end of the week.
AIBU in thinking we should ban it all? No-one's life is going to be hugely affected by not being able to buy this any more.

It's left over from the days when kids didn't have a ton of toys at every junction. I remember getting my first party bag and being overwhelmed by my luck. Not sure many kids think that now.

It is the plastic bottles though. The kids at secondary school get through 1 or 2 a day every day. It's horrific. Despite the fact they all have refillable water bottles that they use as well.

YANBU, the Drowning in Plastic documentary was shocking. I think everyone knows now that plastic is bad but it really needs to be brought home just how bad it is. The scenes with the birds and fish with their stomachs full of plastic were heart breaking.

Retailers do need to start taking responsibility but they won’t do that until people stop buying the tat, or it gets banned. The rest of the wildlife on our planet shouldn’t be suffering so we can have free choice.

www.littlecherry.co.uk/Party-Bag-Toys/

They don't just do party bag fillers, but all the decorations, cutlery etc too.

OP I agree with you, but would not end there. Retailers will not do much voluntarily, especially the larger companies, so I think government should intervene.

Look at the difference with plastic bags use with the charge.

Timely thread - DS2's party is next week and I was thinking about flippin' party bags - have now decided to give each child a fibre seedling pot with a couple of sunflower seeds, and some sweets. No plastic. Maybe some stickers too, though. They like stickers (ages 5 and 6)

A little pot is a nice idea

Yanbu.

I ordered trendy handled paper bags for most recent party, arrived in three layers of plastic from amazon.

Now that DS is eight, the trend is towards fewer kids, and one decent item in the bag with sweets and cake.

YADNBU, I hate this stuff. I think kids magazines should be banned from having them as 'freebies' too. This is why I always give a book at the DC party rather than a bag of plastic shite

I know it is still plastic but I used to give each my DSs party guests a
Lego minifigure and a piece of cake. At least I could be fairly sure they would get some use out of them.

Absolute shite pieces of crap. YANBU.

I've stopped doing party bags. I do nice food and entertainment and send everyone home with a slice of cake.

I don't give plastic in party bags, I give sweets, cake and wrap up a book.

YANBU

I loathe party bag tat with a passion. At the last birthday party we hosted, every child got a £1 bag of Haribo and a piece of cake. We didn't even have bags to put them in.

Why do we need to ban it? Just stop buying it. It's really that simple.

If everyone stopped doing party bags , sales would drop and stores would stop stocking them.

I've not done party bags for a few years, it's just books, sticker books for the little ones. Books or sticker books, or just cake and some sweets is becoming the norm for my dcs primary school, if it could become a national norm, party bag tat would become a thing of the past.

Making changes is great, we've found some simple alternatives that have reduced our use of single use plastics. My DD loves small 'party bag' style toys, and they're far cheaper than the alternatives like wooden toys. I hate having sweets as party bags as I'm far more concerned about sugar consumption than plastic use.

How does my plastic waste et in the sea? It goes to an incinerator plant about 10 miles away?

I've said this for years! Was always shouted down on here for 'spoiling' children's fun

How times have changed (for the better!)

YANBU.

Just got home from a 5th party and party bag was just a piece of cake lmini Haribo and a mini Lego figure (which I think costs more than Poundland tat).

DD loved it so I don't think tat is always necessary. And the Lego figure will get some use.

*I've said this for years! Was always shouted down on here for 'spoiling' children's fun

How times have changed (for the better!)*

Agreed. Thing is though, I’m not even sure people who shout at you for ‘spoiling fun’ or being ‘the fun police’ even have a point - because I don’t think most kids derive much fun from the kind of crap the OP’s talking about. Play with it once, it breaks/play with it once, get bored. They never even remember having owned it.

@Boyskeepswinging

McDonald's is one of the best fast food companies for recycling.

• The used cooking oil is processed into biofuels to run the delivery lorries. The processing facility runs partly on food waste from the restaurants. The lorries also take away the waste which is helping to reduce co2 emissions
• First company to recycle cups and plastic on the dining area
• Used plastics and cardboard are all recycled
• First company to stop using styrofoam
• Staff regularly do trash walks to keep litter under control
• Not much gets sent to landfill; most waste is used to generate energy which helps to reduce reliance on fossil fuels
• Any power paid for comes from sustainable sources like solar or wind powered
• Not all happy meal toys are plastic. We've just had books which were fun. We've had things like plushies in the past too.

I'm sick of reading these threads and seeing McDonald's banded about as the baddie when in reality they're not.

If you want less plastic tat use the various ways of giving feedback and let McDonald's know. Fill in your food for thoughts survey, email head office, tweet them... They're leading the way and I honestly think the happy meal toys will be next.

Also most of the plastic in the seas comes from less developed countries who either don't have a way of processing it, can't afford to or have been paid by other countries to deal with it and so so by dumping it. I can't find the website at the moment but I recently read that less than 10% of plastic waste comes from developed countries.