Plastic not fantastic in party bags

Sam Russell from Wise Mamas approached Plastic Free Guernsey to change the tradition of putting small plastic toys in children’s party bags

Helen Young from the group, which aims to rid the island of single-use plastic, came on board to help spread the word, she said.

‘A small plastic slinky is fun for a couple of minutes until it stretches or bends and then ends up in landfill where it takes 500 years to break down. Sometimes we think that because it’s plastic it can be recycled, but that’s not always the case and so it ends up contaminating the waste and recycling chain.’

Miss Russell said that, as a parent, it can be very difficult to avoid plastic, but not having children bring it home in a party bag is a great way to reduce the influx of plastic that comes through the front door.

‘If you’ve taken my child for a couple of hours and they’ve had fun at a party, that’s enough. I’m so grateful for that, they don’t need little toys that will provide a minute and a half of amusement but then stick around until long after we’re all dead,’ she said.

Part of Plastic Free Guernsey’s aim is to highlight alternatives that can be used instead of plastic.

Miss Young suggested colouring pencils, or something from an activity that the children did at the party, a piece of cake or a packet of seeds for the children to take home that would have useful longevity, rather than the useless longevity that small plastic toys have.

‘There has been quite a bit of positive feedback from the Facebook post we did about this,’ she said.

‘There is also a lot of pressure when you’re throwing a kid’s party, the last thing you need is added pressure of finding little gimmicky toys for them all as well.’

Miss Russell agreed, saying the mixed messaging children receive between environment lessons at school and being given small pieces of plastic as a treat can be contradictory and confusing.

‘I would rather give children a world that’s clean than that a little window of amusement. It’s different to 100 years ago where toys and games like that would be treasured, there are so many toys around now that children think “oh cool” for two minutes before casting it aside.’