Why Reuse Is So Important

As we approach Earth Week, SCT Board Member, Nicolas Gordon, discusses the importance of REUSE especially when it comes to plastic toys:

In the past decade, we have become more literate about the environmental and social impacts of our daily actions. But we are also beginning to understand how for pretty much every business out there, there is a significant trade-off between what is good for the financial bottom line or what is healthy for our communities and our planet. There are the upstream impacts such as the carbon emissions from manufacturing, packaging and shipping, and the downstream impacts such as transport and disposal, typically to landfills. For plastic toys, those landfills will be their home for at least another 500 years. That’s not what we want to think about when giving a child a plastic toy. Toys, unlike other common man-made polymers, are close to impossible to recycle, making reuse pretty much the only alternative to lessen their environmental footprint.

Second Chance Toys provides a real solution to this trade-off dilemma by taking gently used toys from those who have no more use for them and placing them into the hands of those in need. The impact is direct, local and profound, and allows all parties involved to become engaged in a new way of dealing with waste while addressing social challenges. Both the City and the State of New York have ambitious waste programs in place to not only tackle the issue of long-term waste reduction but to also reduce the impact of the waste management system on historically overburdened poor and minority neighborhoods.

Take a moment to eyeball all the plastic toys that your children have. If they no longer play with them, they need not clutter your closets nor our landfills, especially when Second Chance Toys offers the option for them to benefit so many children in need. Find out how you can work with Second Chance Toys to donate or start a collection of your own.

Nicolas Gordon, Second Chance Toys Board Member and Sustainability and Life Cycle Strategy Advisor