Toys tend to have a lifespan of only six months before they are discarded, and 80 percent of unwanted toys in the country end up in landfill, the Taiwan Toy Library Association said. The association has for 17 years been working to reduce that waste by repairing toys and distributing them to families through its facility in Taoyuan, while it uses components from irreparable toys for art activities with elderly people. However, despite its best efforts, the association said it cannot keep up with the 74 tonnes of toys that are thrown away every year.
Association vice president Wang Ya-hsien (王亞賢) said that the only way to tackle the issue is to reduce the number of new toys that are purchased every year, and encourage parents and children to make use of toy exchanges and use toys for longer, she said.
Discarded toys become problematic because modern toys are often made out of plastic, and some contain corrosive batteries and electrical components that are harmful to the environment.
The government could do more to help resolve the issue. It could encourage the manufacture of toys made with environmentally friendly materials such as wood or bamboo, and it could help ease the burden on the association by providing it with funding and by investing in similar initiatives across the country.
People often buy plastic toys for children because they are cheaper. However, children up to a certain age find enjoyment in toys regardless of the material they are made with or their brand name, so there is no need to specifically buy plastic toys. The government could spur the local toy and timber industries with subsidies. The government had put curbs on domestic timber to prevent deforestation, but some researchers are worried that Taiwan is over-reliant on imported wood. For example, forests need to be reasonably felled and trees regularly replanted for them to be healthy, National Taiwan University researcher Wang Chieh-ting (王介鼎) said. Importing wood also contributes to illegal logging in countries with less stringent laws, and comes with a large carbon footprint, he added. A more eco-friendly toy industry would make timber production profitable, and in turn benefit other industries such as home renovation.
What is most important when it comes to toys for very young children is not brand names, but toys that involve a high degree of interactivity and can stimulate learning. More funding could be directed toward researching children’s learning patterns, and researchers at Taiwan’s universities could work with domestic toy manufacturers to develop new products. With growing international focus on environmental issues, there would be large market potential for high-quality handmade toys made using natural materials. The annual output of the global toys market is roughly US$130 billion. Cornering the market for infant toys could be highly profitable and would help reduce plastic waste.
Taiwan should work with other countries to improve the efficiency of plastic recycling. Agence France-Presse on Oct. 25 cited Greenpeace USA as saying that recycling of plastics is in decline, while plastic production is on the rise. Greenpeace said that only about 5 percent of the 51 million tonnes of plastic waste generated in the US is recycled annually. Recycling of plastic is not viable, the organization said, citing the vast quantity of plastic waste, the wide variety of plastics, and the harmful and costly nature of recycling plastic, among other problems.
Since total recycling of plastic waste is infeasible, Taiwan should do what it can to reduce the amount of waste produced — including that produced by toy manufacturing. If done right, the effort would not only benefit the environment, it could pay off financially as well.
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