Plastic in Toys

When did you last buy a toy?

Was it plastic?

Did you see how much packaging was used to keep that small doll in place, in the big box with various images on the back with a clear front?

Do you have any idea how much plastic is being used just so you/your children etc can be entertained?


Below is how much plastic was used in various economic sectors in the UK in 2001- a total of approximately 4.7 million tonnes of plastic products.

Source: WasteOnline.org.uk

Even though toys were only 3%, that still is 141 000 tonnes of plastic = the weight of over 70 000 average sized cars. And this is only in the Uk, this does not include how much is being used in other countries such as the US, Australia and the rest of Europe.

There are alternatives to choosing plastics toys. These include:

• Wooden toys
• Buy preowned toys - these may be plastic but atleast you are not buying new ones where the store will just order in more stock
• Choose toys with as little packaging as possible - ie not Barbie and her massive plastic box with all of the little ties holding her in place.
• As you can see packaging uses 35% of the plastic used which  = 1 645 000 tonnes of plastics = the weight of over 822 000 average sized cars.