Comments on: This Year’s Toys, Next Year’s Trash http://www.siparents.org/this-years-toys-next-years-trash/ Tips, How-tos and more Sat, 23 May 2009 10:51:09 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: kristin http://www.siparents.org/this-years-toys-next-years-trash/comment-page-1/#comment-95 kristin Mon, 03 Dec 2007 21:57:21 +0000 http://www.siparents.org/2007/11/29/this-years-toys-next-years-trash/#comment-95 I did a quick search on what happens to old computers and electronic equipment when we get tired of it (which happens quickly for kids as we all know). These youth electronic devices are made with toxic chemicals like lead, mercury, arsenic, stuff like that. When we throw them in the trash, they go into our landfills and leach into the soil and our water. When we “recycle” them, industry insiders say 80 percent of the e-waste material is exported, and 90 percent of that material goes to China. There, lots of women and children strip these toxic materials by hand for every reusable bit of plastic or metal and sell it. Including lead, it seems. I wonder if this is the same lead showing up in our kids' toys. Knowing about this cycle makes me wonder if my daughter really NEEDS that “laptop” shaped like Barbie’s purse. Here are the links I was looking at for your reference: http://www.ban.org/ban_news/what_happens.html http://search.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/results.pl?tab=all&go=homepage&q=e-waste&Search.x=0&Search.y=0&Search=Search&scope=all I did a quick search on what happens to old computers and electronic equipment when we get tired of it (which happens quickly for kids as we all know). These youth electronic devices are made with toxic chemicals like lead, mercury, arsenic, stuff like that. When we throw them in the trash, they go into our landfills and leach into the soil and our water. When we “recycle” them, industry insiders say 80 percent of the e-waste material is exported, and 90 percent of that material goes to China.

There, lots of women and children strip these toxic materials by hand for every reusable bit of plastic or metal and sell it. Including lead, it seems. I wonder if this is the same lead showing up in our kids’ toys. Knowing about this cycle makes me wonder if my daughter really NEEDS that “laptop” shaped like Barbie’s purse.

Here are the links I was looking at for your reference:
http://www.ban.org/ban_news/what_happens.html
http://search.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/results.pl?tab=all&go=homepage&q=e-waste&Search.x=0&Search.y=0&Search=Search&scope=all

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