'Twas the Season...for Adding a Boatload o Plastic Junk to the Local Landfill

Ding dong, ding dong, Christmas Bells have been ringing and all over the world excited little people woke up on Christmas morning to a world of new stuff that they don’t need and might not even want.  It’s tough putting it into words because I love Christmas, but in your heart you know it too…our children are spoiled and we parents are being blackmailed into buying tons of cr@p to keep the “magic of Christmas” alive.  Yeah, we all know it’s fake, but we buy into it anyway.  Gah!  Well played evil marketing genius!

We started down this road years ago when Munchkin #1 was a wee babbie and now we’re stuck with it.  I am aware that we are being conned, but I am a well-informed sucker and behind the scenes I am doing my best to bring the spirit of BOGOGreenio-ism to the holidays.

 Concern #1: Holiday overspending – check, I addressed this in my post last week called “I'm Dreaming of a Cheap Christmas”

Concern #2: All the new plastic

NEW Plastic makes me feel sad

 

Every year my wish to not introduce unnecessary new plastic into the world rages against my desire to not be a Grinch at Christmas….usually the Not-Grinchy momma wins and our house becomes home to new Barbies and My Little Ponies galore whose eventual future is unknown, but probably (years from now) will end up their lives in a landfill.   It actually hurts my heart to think of a poor beautiful Barbie being buried with the other trash, but that must be what happens in the end since I’m fairly certain you can’t recycle a Barbie (mixed plastic).



Where DO all the old Barbies go??  "Retirement Home Barbie" enjoys sharing a cup
of tea and a chat with "Older Lady Barbie"

The best I can do is to recycle the packaging as much as possible and eventually try to find a new home for the toys once the munchkins have outgrown them.

Post Christmas Recycling a.       BAD: the plastic “windows” have to go into the trash – boooooo! b.      BAD-ISH: regular wrapping paper cannot be composted (because the ink may be toxic – whatttttt????) so try and  save it to reuse (if not torn to shreds) or use compostable paper* c.       BETTER: boxes are usually cardboard and therefore recyclable once the plastic windows have been peeled off (not too hard to do) d.      BEST:  gift bags, gift boxes and tissue paper are all saved for reuse

In conclusion: if you want your kids to believe in Santa (and really, would Christmas be the same without him?), you have to buy a certain amount of plastic junk…I mean toys, but do your best to not spend a gazillion dollars, try to look for toys with less packaging and reuse or recycle what you can.  Sometimes doing your best is the best you can do J

 

 

Happy Holidays y’all!

 

 

 

 

 

* sadly, compostable wrapping paper is not that easy to find, but here’s a source in Germany