舊玩具的可持續(xù)解決方案

舊玩具的可持續(xù)解決方案

If you are a parent, you know how quickly your kids can go through their toys. Once a toy breaks, or when a new toy craze hits the market, it’s out with the old and in with the new. Considering Americans buy more than $18 billion worth of toys annually, you’re not alone. As kids get older and their interests shift, a mountain of unused, broken and obsolete toys is often left in their wake (usually stuffed into the closet or under the bed). This fast turnover can make avoiding the garbage bin particularly challenging, even for the most environmentally conscious parents. But apart from putting the old and broken items out on the curb, what other recycling and donation options exist for toys and toy waste?

如果你是父母，你就會知道你的孩子能多快地瀏覽他們的玩具。一旦一個玩具壞了，或者當(dāng)一個新玩具風(fēng)靡市場時，舊的就會過時，新的就會受歡迎。考慮到美國人每年購買價值超過180億美元的玩具，你并不孤單。隨著孩子年齡的增長和興趣的轉(zhuǎn)移，一堆沒用的、壞的、過時的玩具經(jīng)常留在他們身后(通常被塞進壁櫥或床底下)。這種快速的翻轉(zhuǎn)使避免垃圾桶變得特別具有挑戰(zhàn)性，即使對最具環(huán)保意識的父母也是如此。但是除了把舊的和壞的東西放在路邊，還有什么其他的回收和捐贈玩具和玩具垃圾的選擇呢?

CC BY-NC 2.0. meaganmakes

Donating Is a Rewarding Option

捐贈是一個有益的選擇

Donating functional toys for reuse should always be the first line of defense. Apart from shelters and child care centers, the most obvious and accessible donation options are thrift stores like Goodwill, which will accept clean and functional toys that can be resold. The well-known Marine Toys for Tots Foundation is another excellent choice, donating any unopened or lightly used toys to families that can’t afford to buy them. Yet another good option is Second Chance Toys, a non-profit that accepts toys at drop-off locations during Earth Week in April and the holiday season.

捐贈功能性玩具供再利用應(yīng)該是第一道防線。除了收容所和兒童看護中心，最明顯和最容易得到的捐贈選擇是Goodwill這樣的舊貨商店，它接受可以轉(zhuǎn)售的干凈和功能齊全的玩具。著名的“海洋玩具基金會”也是一個不錯的選擇，它將所有未開封或很少使用過的玩具捐贈給那些買不起它們的家庭。另一個不錯的選擇是玩具二次機會，這是一家非盈利機構(gòu)，在4月的“地球周”和假期期間接受玩具的配送。

Broken Toy or Plastic Waste?

壞了的玩具還是塑料垃圾?

Broken toys can be especially challenging to sustainably dispose of, as thrift stores and donation programs will not accept them. This can be troubling when you consider that more than 40% of the toys gifted to kids during the holiday season alone are broken by spring. To make matters worse, approximately 90% of toys on the market are made out of plastic.

要想以可持續(xù)的方式處理壞掉的玩具尤其具有挑戰(zhàn)性，因為舊貨店和捐贈項目不接受它們?？紤]到僅在節(jié)日期間送給孩子的玩具中，就有超過40%的玩具到了春天就被弄壞了，這就很麻煩了。更糟糕的是，市場上大約90%的玩具都是塑料做的。

In fact, according to research done by the Plastic Disclosure Project, the toy industry has the highest “plastic intensity” of any other sector in the consumer goods market. The study concluded that toy manufacturers have a “value at risk” of 3.9% of annual revenue, or the percentage of annual revenue that would be required to mitigate the environmental damage caused by their use of plastic.

事實上，根據(jù)塑料披露項目的研究，玩具業(yè)的“塑料強度”是消費品市場中最高的。該研究得出的結(jié)論是，玩具制造商的“風(fēng)險價值”占年收入的3.9%，也就是減少使用塑料造成的環(huán)境破壞所需的年收入的百分比。

Toy Recycling Options

玩具回收選項

romana klee/CC BY-SA 2.0

Until recently, recycling options for broken and unusable toys have been difficult to come by. While many broken electronic toys can be recycled by state-operated e-waste recycling initiatives, options for other broken toys can be extremely limited. Even so, there are indeed ways to avoid the landfill. For example, TerraCycle recently partnered with Tom’s of Maine for Earth Month to help families around the country recycle their old and broken toys that can’t be donated. During the program, five hundred boxes of broken toys will be diverted from landfills and recycled into plastic products like park benches.

直到最近，對壞掉和不能使用的玩具進行回收利用的選擇還很困難。雖然國營的電子垃圾回收計劃可以回收許多損壞的電子玩具，但是其他損壞的玩具的選擇卻非常有限。即便如此，還是有辦法避免垃圾填埋。例如，TerraCycle最近與緬因州的Tom 's合作，為地球月幫助全國的家庭回收他們不能捐贈的舊的和壞的玩具。在這個項目中，500箱破碎的玩具將從垃圾填埋場轉(zhuǎn)移出來，并回收利用，制成公園長椅等塑料制品。

Broken toys may be recyclable by your municipal program, but only if it accepts the plastic resins the toys are made of. The problem with this, obviously, is that toys are made with a wide variety of plastics. Polyvinyl chloride (#3, PVC), polypropylene (#5, PP), and polystyrene (#6, PS) are only a few of the most common resins frequently used by toy manufacturers. Even if the toy has an identifiable resin identification code, municipalities vary greatly in their ability to accept certain plastics; some have started collecting polypropylene, for example, while others still only accept the most common (PET and HDPE). Check with your local program before putting broken plastic toys in your curbside blue bin.

根據(jù)你的市政計劃，損壞的玩具可能是可回收的，但前提是它接受玩具所用的塑料樹脂。顯然，這樣做的問題在于，玩具是由各種各樣的塑料制成的。聚氯乙烯(#3,PVC)，聚丙烯(#5,PP)和聚苯乙烯(#6,PS)只是玩具制造商最常用的幾種樹脂。即使玩具有一個可識別的樹脂識別碼，市政當(dāng)局接受某些塑料的能力差別很大;例如，一些人已經(jīng)開始收集聚丙烯，而另一些人仍然只接受最常見的(PET和HDPE)。在把壞的塑料玩具放進路邊的藍色垃圾桶之前，請與當(dāng)?shù)氐南嚓P(guān)機構(gòu)聯(lián)系。

Children can go through their toys rapidly, making the trash bin a tempting way to remove all the clutter. Being sure you are responsibly discarding those old and broken toys can be a great way to further reduce your family’s environmental footprint.

孩子們可以迅速地翻遍他們的玩具，這使得垃圾桶成為清除所有雜物的一個誘人的方式。確保你是負責(zé)任地丟棄那些舊的和壞的玩具可以是一個偉大的方式來進一步減少你的家庭的環(huán)境足跡。