How much waste do toys produce?
The toy industry uses 40 tons of plastic for every $1 million in revenues and is the most plastic-intensive industry in the world. 90% of the toys on the market are made of plastic. Plastic toys can contain heavy metals such as lead or cadmium or other harmful chemicals such as dioxins.
Approximately 36 per cent of all plastics produced are used in packaging, including single-use plastic products for food and beverage containers, approximately 85 per cent of which ends up in landfills or as unregulated waste.
Every year, an estimated 634 million dog toys end up in our landfills, which is equivalent to 40,500 tons of waste.
Of the 40 million tons of plastic waste generated in the United States last year, only five to six percent—or about two million tons—was recycled, according to a new report, conducted by the environmental groups Beyond Plastics and The Last Beach Cleanup.
It was with that philosophy in mind that I said, “Buddy, we are going to get rid of some things today. We can throw some things away and give some things away, but at the end of it all, you are only going to have 20 toys left.” We called it The 20-Toy Rule.
One of the things that separate plastic toys from other plastic objects is that they're essentially destined for the landfill because they're typically composed of other materials too, such as metals. The recyclable components can't be separated out, and become prohibitive for recycling centres.
What goes into a landfill? In most cases, landfills are municipal solid waste facilities that collect and bury whatever isn't sent to municipal recovery facilities (otherwise known as MRFs). This includes food waste, paper, glass, plastic and other products that could otherwise be composted or recycled.
Globally, only 9% of plastic waste is recycled while 22% is mismanaged.
About 75% of global plastics produced are thermoplastics that can be melted and molded over and over to produce new plastics, which – in theory – makes all thermoplastics recyclable. The remaining 25% of plastics are thermoset plastics that do not soften when exposed to heat, making them near-impossible to recycle.
Paper and paperboard products made up the largest percentage of all the materials in MSW, at 23.1 percent of total generation.
What produces the most amount of waste?
The construction industry is the industry that generates the most waste. Metal, paper, plastics, rubber, wood, glass, and more all get used in construction. All of the “odds and ends” left after a construction project end up getting tossed out and into the trash.
According to Medium, approximately 80 percent of all toys end up somewhere on a trash heap. There are many reasons why toys get thrown away, but most of them center on the fact that parents don't know what else to do once their children have outgrown them.
A much bigger problem is the LEGO pieces themselves, which require 90,000 metric tons of plastic a year to make.