So many of our natural resources go into making a wardrobe, so every garment should be recycled. The thing is, many parents insist on buying all new clothing for their children, without taking into account the fact that many used garments are perfectly fine and have very little evidence of use. In addition, some people throw away garments rather than find someone who can use them.
Part of living green is living smart. Do you need to purchase all new clothing for your newborn, or is it possible to find gently-used clothing? Is that cotton shirt with a small rip unusable, or can you harvest the buttons and some of the cloth for a quilt?
Sometimes teaching a child about ecological responsibility is teaching them that a used toy can be just as fun as a new one. We have far too many garments and toys being manufactured every day on this planet, a fact that means pollution and wasting resources that can be put to better use. We also need to reduce consumption of goods.
Just look at the piles of Barbies on eBay! Not only are toys being given to children in excess, as evidenced by the little girls who have over twenty Bratz dolls, folks are buying children far too much for Christmas and birthdays. It is not unusual for children to receive twenty to thirty gifts a piece. I think the green issue is far beyond just eating right and being consumer conscious. It has a lot to do with curtailing greed.
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That's very very true. We're very much a greedy and disposable society now, which is how we've created so many of the problems we are now facing, not least the amount of waste that we generate. 50+ years ago, people reused, mended, made do, and MADE gifts for other people. In fact this was popular in the 70s and into the 80s to a large extent. In my experience, it's been with the increase in media around us - everyone having televisions, internet advertising etc, that this has changed. Now children expect to have what they see on TV, then their friends want it to be the same, and on it goes - adults are no better. For a start, we buy these things for them.
The more I see on this site, the more I feel I need to be rumaging around charity shops, not just donating clothes and toys to them.
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