‘Tis the approaching season of glitter, foil and glue! We all like a spot of sparkle but if anyone wants to indulge with twinkly bits of glitter and plastic bits and bobs on cards and wrapping paper, recipients of the aforementioned, just please don’t put them in the recycling box! Why not put a nice big sticky note on your recycling box to remind you! (Plus if you can remove the sticky tape from any non-glitter/non-metallic wrapping paper before you put it in the recycling bin, that would help the recyclers enormously!).
Glitter is made from plastic or a combination of plastic and aluminium. It’s a microplastic (which means it is less than 5mm in size) and, as such, escapes into the waterways and the seas, hugely damaging to the environment. Glitter may be marked as biodegradable, however, once it is stuck to card or wrapping paper or gift bags it renders those items unrecyclable. In fact, if put in the recycling box it can end up clogging up the machinery at the plant. Why not replace it with coloured rice or sand? Or perhaps do without?! Some big retailers have already taken steps to remove glitter from their products, which is great. So, just to cement it into your thoughts …
No type of glitter will degrade,
Neither will it ever fade
From our soil, it just pollutes.
It gets in your hair, it gets in the cushions,
It wiggles its way into rivers and oceans!
Glittery paper, glittery card,
Makes recycling impossibly hard.
So, dear shopper/crafter, please compute,
Make a pre-Christmas resolution
To stay away from glitter pollution!
