AIBU to ask if that bit of plastic is really necessary **title edited by MNHQ**

[Ifwisheswereunicorns]

If you think of every plastic toy you had as a child, every plastic wrapper or box it ever came in, every bit of plastic curling ribbon that made a pretty bow around that gift you gave, every happy meal toy you got as a kid, every happy meal toy you got for your kid, every drinking straw, every shampoo or conditioner bottle, every washing up liquid bottle, every milk bottle, every party bag filler toy (that falls apart in the car on the way home!), every bit of plastic your food of drink comes in; IT STILL EXISTS! In one way or another (unless it's been insinorated, causing atmospheric polution, cluttering up our planet; polluting our oceans, shores and land.
Our planet is in crisis.
AIBU to ask if you could think again about what to buy at Christmas? X

@WinterSpiceOnIce it really gets in to your head, doesn't it.

We have a fabric Advent calendar, best cheap fillers are foil wrapped litlle Santa's or coins, aldi. Foil is very recyclable just have a pot to collect. Now we are older we gratuitously stuff four Celebrations into each pocket!

I do think recycling will be seen as standard by our children, DS is 4 and loves reusing random items for crafting, in shopping malls he'll look for the correct recycling bin (they have photos) etc.

He's also playing recycling with his playdoh right now, singing a made up recycling song to the tune of brother Jack .

Afraid the toy itself is plastic and the playdoh itself will be used 2/3 max as it's playdoh plus which sticks to everything so I'll have to scrape most of it off.

well, I grew up in the 70s and 80s in a house where recycling etc was the norm - my dad had a very wartime mentality to waste and was also pretty tight. He was doing loads of this stuff years ago.

But... it was pretty dismal to live with and I'm afraid I went completely the other way when I left home and revelled in leaving the lights on, heating my house to full blast whenever I wanted and not always having to reuse everything again... and again... and again.

Nowadays I'm pretty ecologically sound, but I'm ambivalent about, for example, not buying DD Playmobil for Christmas when she's really into it and would love it (and we would either sell it or keep it for the GCs ()). I really remember the joy of buying a new roll of wrapping paper instead of having to reuse last year's paper, which was the year before's, and the year before that's...

My point is, if I really have one instead of just musing, that if you make it all too joyless for your DC they may well end up going completely the other way.

However - if MN wanted to head a campaign about reducing plastic in kids' magazines I would totally get behind that.

RiverTam That's actually a pretty good point and not one I've thought about before, this is in spite of the fact I've reacted much like you in some ways.

But I really don't think that by cutting down on plastic and going against consumerism has to make for a joyless Christmas. Surely Christmas and life itself is about more than 'stuff'. Yesterday me and my 2 year old sat down to make salt dough decorations. I'll get my 4 year old to help make cards. There's the joy of decorating the house and doing other crafty and baking things (though with my kids being 2 & 4 I'm a bit limited as to what we can do at the moment!). Kids get excited about the smallest things, it doesn't have to be all singing and dancing all of the time. That's what we're told it has to be but surely it's not true. People, I think I'm ok to say, did enjoy Christmas without, well, all the crap! I think that being inventive (and thinking outside the erm, plastic box) can bring more joy to children than just going out to buy more stuff. Time to do things is, of course, a different matter!

which is why I'm happy to be as virtuous as I can throughout the year, and as far as me and DH are concerned, but I'm not prepared to be Scroogish at Christmas and with DD, too much. We reuse and recycle and pay attention to all of this throughout the year.

Really, I think once you've decided to have children the concept of being virtuous at Christmas seems a bit putting the cart before the horse.

OP- your DC are very little still.

I also am happy with very little at Christmas, I can't abide being given 'stuff'. But I'm not going to impose that on DD.

The thing is, if we carry on taking all we can from the planet and in the process of doing so, suffocating it in our plastic waste, we really aren't going to be leaving much of a world left.

Especially balloon releases. Just don't

^ This

I had a go at the organisers of the regular balloon race at our local annual summer fete a few years ago and told them what I thought of them. I don't think it was solely what I said, and I'm sure that other people might have brought things to their attention, but they have stopped doing them now thank goodness.

Our utter stupidity when it comes to plastics, consumerism and pollution is being imposed on our children though. It is the world they'll be left with once were gone. Just like this is the state we find the world in due to how people have lived in the past 50 years or so.

but we have chosen to bring children into this world, and are making the situation worse by doing so! That is the really stupid thing to do if we care about our planet. Stop spending millions keeping people alive, spend the money on saving our planet. Seriously. We are the most destructive force out there.

Look, I am with you on a lot of this - I have just the one child, I drive a very small car rarely (and will replace it next year due to the low emission zone being extended to my area - but I've had the same car for over 15 years, less than 70,000 miles on the clock), I rarely eat meat and Dh and DD are veggie, I haven't been on a plane in over 10 years and no longer have a passport. I recycle assiduously, all the packing from DD toys is carefully kept in the loft, I borrow from the library, I reuse as and when I can etc etc etc.

But - if DD wants a Playmobil hospital for Christmas then that is what she will get, and I will wrap it in some pretty (non metallic) paper. She's a good girl, who works hard. When she's done with it, we will sell it or keep it or give it away to a good cause.

I have asked some businesses/organisations who give out balloons to children to reconsider. Hasn't got me too far though! Maybe not enough people mention it.

Switching to a completely ethical, economical and environmental lifestyle is not realistic for most people though.

If everyone makes small changes where they can then it all adds up and will hopefully make some sort of impact in the long run.

I'm another who hates kids magazines inside a plastic bag filled with lots of plastic crap too though!

I'm not sure. I think it's only the massive changes that will really impact - but as you say, most people don't want to do that.

@RiverTam as I wrote a few pages back, I agree with you and i know humans are the most destructive force but just because I made the decision to have children it doesn't mean I'm exempt from caring for the planet. The playmobil hospital is not the issue here. I know playmobil lasts (I have some from the 1970s and it's still going strong with my children). Good quality toys will last, can be passed on and then last some more. I'm also very aware that a large percentage of toys produced are not good quality and do not last and are bought as filler presents that the recipient probably isn't bothered for and those toys will be cast aside or broken shortly after Christmas. Is that bit bit of plastic really necessary.

Please people, do your bit. X

Does Mr Attenborough's words not do anything for you?

Tell this to the dickheads at supermarket checkouts who insist their already wrapped in plastic meats are wrapped again,

Was behind a woman today giving out cos the checkout woman at Morrison’s hadn’t done it automatically!

I feel the same OP. I've asked family not to buy the DCs plastic toys this Christmas (in fact I've tried to make it clear that more distant relatives really don't need to buy them anything, but I'm not sure that message has got through... )

Of course that doesn't mean they won't get any plastic toys , but hopefully DH and I can choose then just one or two things they really want and will play with for years (probably lego!) rather than them getting tons of stuff they don't want or need.

Next task, to try to persuade my parents that they don't need to buy shiny, glittery wrapping paper

This is quite old but has just jumped up the list of threads.

I totally agree with the OP but I do think people find it difficult because even if you make a good effort with recycling etc, there is so much plastic that is difficult to avoid.

We live in Thailand and the plastic use here is ASTRONOMICAL. Bags for life are a new thing in one or two of the more expat-targeted shops, but I have had checkout staff put already-bagged fruit, sealed inside a second bag after being weighed, into a carrier bag to then put inside my own shopping bag (that's THREE plasric bags for one lot of grapes or whatever!) Individually wrapped pieces of fruit and veg are a thing here. Fast food chains have just started trying to limit straws in the past few months but you still get given a plastic straw in most 'proper' restaurants (sealed in plastic) and always if you buy a drink from a 711, whether it's a can or bottle.

I feel like I spend my life declining totally unnecessary plastic. A staff member in H&M actually thanked me the other day when I declined a plastic bag for what I'd bought. I think he was shocked as it is a rarity here, and basically unheard of among locals (the guy was not Thai).

Oh, and there is no recycling facility where I live but from what I've heard, in many places the recycling bins get emptied at the same time into the same truck as the general waste bins anyway, and all go to landfill.

If we could even get close to where the Brits have got in terms of plastic awareness that would be MASSIVE progress in this part of the world.

It is so frustrating but I suppose we just have to keep telling ourselves every little helps. We move around so can't tell ourselves we will keep good quality plastic toys for the next generation, but we do buy and sell a lot second hand which I suppose makes a tiny difference.

Most of the presents I've bought are second hand especially toys so absolutely no plastic tat at all. Just a massive pile of barbies/hot wheels/turtles figures that they want but no plastic boxes or wrapping oh and cost me about an eighth of the price. Win win!

No plastic in my presents so far.