Why I Don't Allow Plastic Toys into Our Home

It's Christmas time again and with it, questions on what kinds of toys my daughter can have, why she can't have them and comments about how I'm depriving her or about how it's easier and cheaper to buy plastic toys, so I should just get over it and let her have the stuff all the other kids get.

So I thought I would explain exactly why I take such a strong stance against these toys. I make the weird decisions that I do because I want to live as consciously as possible and I want to instill that value in my children as well.

I don't want to try to make anyone feel guilty. I don't want anyone to think that I believe I am better than they are. I don't want anyone to feel bad about their lifestyle. I just want everyone to understand why I feel so strongly about it.

There are many reasons why I hate plastic toys. To begin, I am concerned about the toxicity of plastic toys. Many plastic toys contain hazardous materials such as lead, PBDEs (added to plastics as flame retardants), mercury, antimony, cadmium, arsenic, polyvinyl chloride, and especially phthalates which are added to vinyl toys to make them soft. Children who put toys into their mouths are at the greatest risk, but these chemicals are also absorbed through the skin as a child plays and even when they are not touching the toys, the plastic offgasses these chemicals into the air and sheds them as dust which is then inhaled.

Wanting to protect my daughter alone is enough to make me want to swear off plastic toys, but there is more to it than safety alone. I also think about how these things affect the environment. Plastic is a petroleum product. The plastic industry is a HUGE contributor to poverty, pollution and global climate change. Is a bunch of cheap junk really worth all that? Is this lifestyle sustainable?

We live in a culture where we learn from our earliest days that success means owning as much "stuff" as possible. The problem with this is that "stuff" costs money. To combat this, we need cheap plastic stuff; the cheaper, the better. With cheap stuff, we can afford to buy more and who doesn't want more?

But everything has a price. I may not have to pay the price for cheap stuff, but someone else does. Someone in China does. Or India. Or anywhere else where slavery is not only legal, but the norm. It's easy for me to own these things because I live in the wealthiest country in the world.

But the wealth of this country does not come from the workers in this country. It comes from the slave labor in other countries. We don't see where our stuff comes from. We go to the store and see it in a pretty shiny box. It didn't seem to come from anywhere. It just appeared there on the shelf for us like magic. We do not see the sweatshops filled with children who earn less than one cent an hour making toys so that we here in the wealthy countries can have them for next to nothing. It is easy for me to buy these things because I don't have to see how it's made. I can close my eyes. I don't have to look at where it comes from.

I don't have to work 100 hours a week in dangerous conditions, never having a day off in my life and getting paid less than three dollars a week for my work.
I don't have to watch my family starve because we can't afford food, because I earn less than a dollar a day on a toy assembly line.
I don't have to work all day making cheap plastic toys that I will never be able to afford, only to send them to a country that will never allow me to live there, where some privileged child will drag it around by the hair and draw with markers on its face until it eventually ends up in the trash and then shipped back to my own country so that I can wade through it while scrounging through the garbage.
I don't have cancer from chemicals my employer at the plastics plant chose not to protect me from because it wasn't "cost effective."
I don't have a baby born with birth defects because we live next to a plastics plant.

And all this for a piece of junk that I have to pay a hundred times more for than it cost to make because the toy companies have to pay for advertising to make me buy something that I wouldn't have even wanted in the first place if they hadn't spent all that money on the advertising to MAKE me want it.

I live in a world where no matter how poor I am, as long as I live here, I will know nothing but convenience and ease and good health and thank goodness for that. I am thankful that I have so much and I choose to be conscious of where these things come from.

Every religion teaches us to love our fellow man, no matter who he is; not to have loyalties just to our own country or our own economy, but to all humans everywhere because we are all the same, no matter where we live. I am responsible not just for my own child, but for the children and families who make the things that we buy for our home, because in a way, they are our family too.

I choose to say no to plastic toys because I want to teach my little girl these values. I don't want her to grow up thinking that it's okay to sell your morals for material goods. I don't believe in slave labor, even if it is the only way we can afford to have all of this stuff. I want to teach her that it's not quantity that matters, but quality. I want to teach her the value of human life. Plastic goods are not worth the price. I would rather pay for the "expensive" natural, handmade, fair-trade toys.

I don't say all of this to be preachy, though I guess it's difficult not to sound that way. I'm not better than someone who chooses to buy what they want. I can't convince the world. I just don't want people making rude comments anymore about how we live, or saying that I'm depriving my daughter of her childhood because she can't have a Barbie. I just want people to understand that I just want to be a good mom. I do not want these toys to be part of our family values.

Sure, there is the possibility she might grow up resenting me for not giving her all these plastic toys. I can only do my best to help her understand why we live the way that we do and then hope that she chooses to make good decisions for herself in the future. I want to help raise a generation that isn't selfish, that is conscious of the world and how it works - a generation that knows what is going on around them so that they can change it for the better.

Then, at least, I will have done my job as a parent. I want to set a good example. I want her to see that her mom does what she does because she won't sell out her morals or her soul or the life of a total stranger for a piece of cheap plastic junk.

So thanks for reading this weird lady's rant :) I guess we all have our weird thing that we believe strongly and passionately in.

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It is very difficult to live entirely without cheap foreign-made stuff, and sometimes you really don't have a choice, but there is a LOT that you can do if you are interested in changing your lifestyle. In general, here are some tips:

-Take hand-me-downs from family and friends.
-Shop garage sales and thrift stores for used items.
-Buy European-made toys. Thave strict standards on hazardous materials in toys.
-Make cookies or other homemade food to give as gifts which can be enjoyed by consuming them, leaving nothing that has to go into a landfill.
-Avoid "Made in USA" labels. Having worked in retail, I have learned that this does not at all mean that the item was made in the USA. It only means that it was finished here. Maybe the decals were stuck on here or maybe the tags were sewn into the clothing here or maybe it was just packaged here. Some "made in USA" items really are entirely made here, but there is almost no way to know, so don't buy based only on that.
-Join Freecycle. You can give away used items that you no longer need and you can pick up or request items that you do need and often someone will have one they are willing to give to you for nothing.
-Learn how to make things by hand. Not only does it save money, it is a lot of fun and very rewarding to make your own things. I make clothing, quilts, books, and toys for my daughter.
-If you simply cannot get by without buying something, buy organic, fair trade, or handmade by a craftsperson living where you live. Take care of it. Treasure it. If it is made well and lasts, you can hand it down and it need never go into a landfill.
-Buy natural items. They can be destroyed or will biodegrade when they are no longer useful. They won't sit in a landfill for thousands of years.
-Reuse. I make things from old clothing. I save buttons and string and ribbon and scraps. I make things from what I already have.
-Get rid of your TV. The sole purpose of television is to sell you products. If you don't watch it, then you won't want anything because there won't be anything there to make you want it. There's not usually anything on TV worth watching, anyway. If you have a favorite television show you just can't live without, buy or rent the series on DVD or watch it commercial-free online.
-Opt for real items in your home. For example, instead of buying the fake silk plants, plant a real plant in a flower pot.

For children, encourage gifts that are meaningful:

-Give the gift of your time and attention.
-Give the gift of knowledge or imagination through books or quality videos or even music. Most books, DVDs, and music are made in countries where workers are paid fair wages.
-Buy natural, durable toys that will last through many generations and become treasured heirlooms. These toys will retain their durability and their value for generations to come.
-Melissa & Doug is a line of toys which are mostly wood. They are affordable and fairly durable.
-Make toys by hand. It's not difficult. Even a child can recognize that a handmade toy is made with love and passion for doing what you love. It holds a beauty that inspires reverence.
-Give the gift that keeps on giving. Give the gift of a museum or zoo membership, or movie passes.
-As a family, choose an organization to donate to. Many non-profits such as Heifer International and Oxfam allow you to purchase livestock, seeds, or school books which are then given to children and families in third world countries to help them better provide for their families.

And if you can't afford it, then take a moment to consider the possibility that maybe you don't really even need it in the first place.