Benefits of Recycling Toys

Anyone with children knows how quickly their seemingly profound love for a toy dies out. While it is sometimes difficult to recycle toys, there are many that may be recycled as a whole, or at least, in parts.

Electronics

Electronic devices eventually wear out (some quicker than others, depending on the enthusiasm of the child) but should never be thrown away with normal trash.

• Electronic waste accounts for more than half of the overall toxic waste found in landfills.
• Toys can contain valuable metals, such as mercury.
• These materials can contaminate soil, as well as drinking water.

Lead

Paint containing lead cannot be recycled. Toys with lead paint are dangerous and should not be given to children.

While lead exposure can be dangerous for everyone, young children are especially at risk because they absorb lead more easily than adults and are more susceptible to its harmful effects. Even low-level exposure may impair the intellectual development, behavior, size and hearing of infants. If you discover a toy in your home that contains lead, it should be returned to the manufacturer.

Batteries

• Batteries contain heavy metals such as mercury, lead, cadmium and nickel.
• Recycling batteries keeps these heavy metals out of landfills and the air.
• When incinerated, certain metals can be released into the air or can concentrate in the ash produced by the combustion process.

Plastics

Many toys are made of the plastic polyvinyl chloride, or PVC. Recycling PVC has many benefits:

• The manufacturing of PVC requires the largest single use of chlorine gas in the world (roughly 40 percent of total chlorine production or 16 million pounds per year).
• The petroleum and energy consumed in production from virgin plastics releases far more carbon dioxide than that of recycling.
• The release of chlorine, mercury, lead, cadmium and other potentially hazardous chemicals into the environment are reduced when vinyl toys are recycled.