1000 Flowers for the Planet - #340 Buy Battery-Free Toys

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #340 Buy Battery-Free Toys

Batteries are an environmental problem all the way along their life-cycle. Large amounts of fossil fuels are used to mine the mineral resources used in the production of batteries. More fossil fuels are used to transport the product from manufacturer to wholesaler to store to consumer. Once home, packaging is often tossed into the bin to go to landfill. Then, if the batteries themselves are tossed into landfill they can leach harmful chemicals into the environment where water systems become polluted. Unfortunately, most batteries are tossed into landfill.

One major way to avoid using batteries is to buy battery-free toys. This will help the planet immensely by keeping batteries out of the environment but there are some other amazing benefits to this Flower suggestion. Toys without batteries don’t move unaided, which means the child has to physically ‘play’ with the toy, and isn’t that what toys are supposed to be for – play? If you provide a plastic, battery operated item that runs on its own energy source, it might entertain a child for a little while, but it won’t promote thought. When a child ‘plays’ the child creates, invents, imagines, thinks, problem solves, takes risks, experiments and learns. These are amazing gifts to give any child. Maybe this is why children often prefer the box over the item that was in it – the box offers more for the imagination. Think carefully when buying any toy and take a look at those without batteries, for so many good reasons.