Nurseries ban glitter over pollution concerns
A childcare boss says she decided to banish the material over concerns about microplastics, which can harm the environment.
Friday 17 November 2017 04:34, UK
A group of nurseries is banning children from using glitter over concerns about pollution.
Tops Day Nurseries - a chain of 19 daycares across southern England - is outlawing the sparkly substance used by thousands of children to make Christmas cards and baubles at this time of year.
Managing director Cheryl Hadland said she made the decision after realising glitter is a microplastic which can harm the environment.
:: Sky Ocean Rescue: How to get involved
She said: "You can see when the children are taking their bits of craft home and there's glitter on the cardboard, it blows off and into the air and on to the road, and it's only a tiny little bit, but we've got 3,000 children and they're all doing Christmas craft at the moment, so we've got glitter everywhere.
"There are 22,000 nurseries in the country, so if we're all getting through kilos and kilos of glitter, we're doing terrible damage, and these children, the world is for them.
"So here we are wrecking the place for them, and I didn't even know. I've been running the nurseries for 27 years and I had no idea that we were doing all that damage.
"You can't really recycle it because it's so small, you can't separate it from anything."
:: Plastic pollution reaches ocean's deepest parts
Ms Hadland, from Bournemouth, added: "I love glitter, it's lovely, shiny, twinkly stuff, so it is kind of sad, but when we're wrecking the environment we really can't be doing it. So we're just going to have to start getting our heads round using stuff that's more sustainable."
She said the decision has only just been made so parents may not be aware of it, but she insisted they are likely to be supportive.
She said: "We did a survey a few months ago and 86% of our parents want us to be eco-sustainable. I think a lot of our parents really want us to do this."
:: Shocking photos emerge of 'sea of plastic'
Many parents who use her nurseries are millennials, she said, who are likely to want a sustainable education for their child.
Sue Kinsey from the Marine Conservation Society praised the "proactive approach".
"The majority of microplastics that get into the sea come from personal care products, household cleaners, tyre wear and other sources," she said.
"While glitter is only a small part of the microplastic load getting into watercourses and the sea, steps like these will all add up to something greater.
"This is a very proactive approach, amongst lots of things that the nursery is doing to help the environment, like using cloth aprons and not releasing balloons outdoors, and it is definitely possible to create a Christmas card to take home without using glitter."