22 May 2022

Plastic

By popular request, that's our lovely Little Phoebe in our kitchen this afternoon.  I  was busy cooking the Sunday dinner but I made time to capture a few images of her at sixteen months old. Those pink shoes are her second pair'

Her Great Auntie Carolyn works in a charity shop and spotted a plastic kiddie car when it first came in. She thought it would be a good buy for Little Phoebe and this was her very first outing in her new vehicle.
To tell you the truth, it is not new at all. It's secondhand but that is fine with us, Stew and Frances too. We have made a point of avoiding buying any new plastic toys for Phoebe. Everything is secondhand or used - out of respect for this planet's finite resources.  We have been squandering plastic for far too long and it is time to cease or at least to hugely reduce our purchasing of plastic  items and  items encased  in plastic packaging.
Phoebe does not seem to mind one iota that her car is used as she prepares to drive off into the sunset. Let's hope that in a few months we will have an opportunity to pass the "Little Tikes" plastic car on to another small child to enjoy.

47 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:21 am

    On our floor are one couple with a three year old and another couple with a one year old. I saw a pile of plastic toys outside the three year old's front door with a note to say they were for the one year old neighbour. Nice and better than just being thrown out.

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    1. I find that people have become more comfortable with used products - including clothes and toys.

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  2. Phoebe is adorable in her little car! Children outgrow toys like that so fast it would be ridiculous to buy them brand new anyway.

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    1. The financial cost is immaterial. It's the environmental toll that matters.

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  3. You have the right idea about the saving of our planet. when you look in the super stores you see nothing but huge plastic toys.

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    1. When you were a boy in Esk, there was no waste plastic in the environment. What the hell have we done?

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  4. Your plastic paranoia is shared.

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    1. In our lifetimes plastic has become the scourge of this planet.

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  5. We buy all our cars used. Always have. Looks like Ms. Phoebe was able to get a nice used car. It does not look like a gas guzzler.

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    1. She traded in some push-button sound books that had stopped working.

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  6. I agree, there is more than enough plastic in the world. I buy secondhand toys for Jack as well. Phoebe's grown so much. She looks like such a cutie.

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    1. We are biased but we think she's the cutest toddler ever.

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  7. What an excellent example on plastics to start Phoebes life - one in which her generation will be doomed to attempt to clean up the mess that ours has made. My understanding of the mess we are creating and concerted effort to consume less and minimize waste started a out 2 decades ago, but I've still got over 4 decades to make amends for and wonder if i will live long enough, or work hard enough to bring enough others along my journey too. I apologize to Phoebe and all her generation for my previous wastefulness.

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    1. I will pass your apology on this afternoon - but it wasn't just you Tigger!

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  8. In the "car" pictures, Phoebe looks a little skeptical about this mode of transport. Maybe she has already begun thinking about the future of individual traffic vs. public transport.
    Very good idea to stop buying new plastic stuff. There is way too much around already anyway, much of it still perfectly good for use, so buying secondhand is best.
    I regularly despair at the supermarket - even "organic" veg and fruit comes in at least some kind of plastic packaging. There are chocolate bars and other stuff I have stopped buying because they come in plastic, not just in one big bag, but individually wrapped in even MORE plastic inside the larger bag.

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  9. Nice wheels, Phoebe. Take Grandpa out for a spin.

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    1. I fear that Grandpa is too bulky to fit in the back.

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  10. It's a magic world at that age, both for children and their parents and grandparents. We all see the world in new ways.
    Plastic - the magic material. I couldn't agree more. Whatever did manufacturers think would happen to the stuff in the end? I'm sure some must have known but decided to keep quiet. It wasn't our (the public's) job to predict it. We didn't have the information.

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    1. The manufacturers were blinkered - their focus being entirely on profits and damn the future!

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  11. Lovely photos of Phoebe. She's a little girl now - and with her very own car too! I do hope that Clint isn't jealous!
    How I agree with you about plastic waste. Nearly everything I buy here is encased in plastic, and some packages are difficult to open. To a certain extent I see the need to package some foods - obviously raw items like meat, but not almost every single thing on the planet! In supermarkets particularly, I have tried to buy some items "loose" but when I get to the checkout the they are immediately popped into a plastic bag!

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    1. Plastic manufacturers and commercial promoters of the stuff should be held to account in courts of law for doing what they have knowingly done to this planet. Talk about living for today!

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  12. It's almost summer, you're going to have much fun with Phoebe and a bucket of water, teaching her to wash her car.

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    1. Oh yes! Yippee! Cleaning cars is so much fun, fun, fun!

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  13. She is growing up fast. It won't be all that long and she'll be driving one for real. By the way, I've always had second-hand cars. My first ever brand new one was at the ripe old age of 70.

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    1. That must have been a treat well worth waiting for.

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  14. Both of our girls had a red and yellow version of that car they spent hours driving in at a daycare place where the odometer was pretty much maxed out on it from previous generations of drivers.

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    1. The green car interested me, since I've only ever seen the red and yellow version that Ed referenced. The interesting thing about Little Tikes is that they are marketing 'Go Green' lines now that are made from recycled plastic. They also sell replacement parts. If little Phoebe ever damages a tire, the vehicle is still savable. You can just order a new wheel. That car can last forever, but if it doesn't, it is meant to go in the recycle bin.

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    2. Little Tikes Cozy Coupe was first launched in 1979 - out of Hudson, Ohio. Since then they have sold in their millions. That is a hell of a lot of plastic!

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    3. Yes. But can we celebrate the fact that the world was quite different in 1979 and that a company is making responsible changes?

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  15. I always wonder how much do we pay food plastic packaging?

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    1. We don't pay. This beaten up and abused planet does... in the end.

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  16. Oh, she is growing up so fast! What a cliche- but so true. She's gorgeous, your little Phoebe bird! Toys and children's clothing are the supreme example of things to pass on for re-use. And maternity clothes too, for that matter.

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    1. Strange as it may seem I have never worn maternity clothes.

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    2. Ah, but I imagine your mama did.

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  17. Stylish dresser, and she has a cute car!

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    1. She can go anywhere in that speedy vehicle. Maybe she will drive herself to nursery school.

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  18. I'm a plastic hater as well. Surely, there are biodegradable options for packaging purposes by now. What is the hold up? Phoebe is clearly loving her new wheels. She is so cute!

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    1. My grandfather made me a fort from scrap wood. It cost him nothing and there was no plastic. It had a drawbridge and turrets and everything.

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  19. Yes, in full agreement. Children just see something nice to play with, not whether it is brand, spanking new. When we were young, it was the norm to wear hand-me-downs, for the grocer to put unwrapped fruit and veg in brown paper bags, or straight into the shopping basket, and to have second-hand bikes and toys. It never occurred to me to do any different with my own children, and none seem to have ailed. I don't know when this mentality of everything must be new and the latest model crept in, but I suspect at the same time as tv advertising began to intrude - I can remember clearly an advert for Clark's shoes that played the guilt card that any parent passing on shoes was damaging their child's feet forever - and the pressure has just become more and more intensive on parents that they are incompetent/unloving/depriving their children if they don't buy more and more, and of the best style and latest fad. The propaganda has wormed its way through all aspects of society and the toll has been taken environmentally, financially, and confidence wise. I'm so glad that you are taking a stand, stepping away from the crap and giving Phoebe, what she and every other child in this big, broken, worn out world really needs, love and security by the bucketload. It is that love and security that will serve her well throughout her life.

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    1. This a great comment - passionate and wise. Thanks for sharing your thoughts Elizabeth.

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  20. BRAVO for not buying new plastic! I wish everyone was as careful as you and your family. Kids' toys are almost all made of plastic and, as you said, why not re-use them if possible?

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    1. If you go in a big toy warehouse shop, it's all about plastic. Tons of the stuff! Not a good message for little children who will become the new guardians of this planet.

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  21. What a cutie she is, Neil! That car is perfect for her. Good find!

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    1. I think we have been swindled Ellen! It doesn't have an engine!

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  22. What a dear little girl, YP. And applause for your whole-family approach to plastics.

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    1. When I was a boy, plastic was a tiny part of my experience of life. Look at what happened in sixty years! Terrible!

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