Glitter should be banned

[willywallaby]

Apparently it was banned in the EU last year! Not for the first time I'm wishing we still followed their rules, and we should follow suit now. We never buy glitter or items with glitter on but somehow it makes its way into our house anyway. If we get something like a card with a glittery front my heart sinks. In DD's bag of crafts from the school year that she brought home, there's an egg box decorated with glitter that already covered all the other crafts and I've left the egg box in the bag for now because I dare not bring it out! A few weeks ago DD found a little packet of glitter in a craft kit that we didn't know was there, and she emptied it all over the carpet and into her art box. It was hard enough clearing it out of the carpet and we're still finding it everywhere and cleaning out the art box will be so difficult we haven't even started yet. And it's all just bloody microplastics! The existence of glitter does no good for anyone.

Agreed. Horrendous for the environment. We don't use it in my preschool any more.

I think you can get plastic free glitter that's much better for the environment now

Yes and sequins also terrible for the environment.

Glitter does me good. It brings me joy.
Feel free to avoid it. Don't try to police everybody else's choices.

Can you imagine the headlines if we were still in the EU?
Brussels comes for birthday cards!
EU bans Christmas cheer!

It does seem that we seek to ban lots of fun things. Many like glitter causes very little harm, but the fun suckers rub their hands at the prospect of a long moan.
So many people descended from Traffic Wardens.

I thought you meant Gary!! He should be banned!!

Do you really think these bans come in because fun suckers are rubbing their hands at people being miserable?
The scientific proof that it contaminates the water is just made up then, right?

Mmm. Sure. They’re finding microplastics in placentas but ja ja, your sad temporary trinket must exist.

I know it's terrible for the environment but I bloody love glitter. When I was teaching in prison I used to do a lesson on germs and personal hygiene, where the prisoners dipped their hands into a bowl of glitter and then wandered around the classroom touching things so we could see how germs transferred if you didn't wash your hands. There was glitter EVERYWHERE. Glittery classroom, glittery teacher, glittery bloody prisoners (who thought it was hilarious), glittery cells when they went back to the wing....it was truly awesome. I was not popular with management.

Yes that was my first thought, must be an age thing. I did like his music back in the 70s!

I agree glitter should be banned, along with balloons.

so many people descended from Traffic Wardens.
What is that line meant to mean ?
Do you mean that traffic wardens should give tickets to people that use glitter? I think not .
I guess you mean you don't like them doing their job , its really simple if you don't want a ticket font park where you shouldn't.

This

If that's your biggest problem, you haven't really got a problem.

I'd be all for a push to ban all unnecessary single use plastic in general (with certain items such as medical devices, period products etc being the exception and considered 'necessary'). There are environmentally sound alternatives and where there isn't, people will rapidly fill those gaps in the market as the contracts are so high.

Glitter and micro plastic bead in face wash are particularly bad, but most larger items of plastic will break down to that eventually where they can easily be invested by animals and become impossible to remove. I went to a beautiful beach in Spain last year and so many tins tiny fragments of plastic in the sand. It was really saddening.

I thought that too. 😂

I can picture it now.😂

There is such a thing as biodegradable glitter, not made from plastic.

My DC are in their 30s now, but I was the "craft mum" when they were at primary school, as none of my mum friends wanted to mess their houses up. We used lots of glitter (didn't know about the environmental impact then) and the only way to deal with it lingering in the carpet was to move house regularly 😄

Both DC went on to be professional artists, but glitter doesn't really feature in their work!

Fun fact sequins used to be made of gelatine and they did indeed biodegrade. Not a good thing when on a costume.

@fortifiedwithtea ah so that what happened to Lady Godiva and the Emperors new clothes 😆

So do "Chinese" lanterns, balloon releases, body scrubs with microbeads, bonfires in the park, one-use barbeques on the beach.

So do many other things that don't cause untold harm to our world. Surely you can get joy from other things. Even biodegradable glitter. But that's not cheap and cheerful, so I suppose you won't bother.

I've done the same activity with preschoolers except using ground pepper. Sticks to everything exactly the same way. Not as sparkly though.

Oh stop being so miserly. Nothing wrong with glitter.