{"id":176394,"date":"2021-03-23T17:13:26","date_gmt":"2021-03-23T17:13:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.natgeokids.com\/uk\/?p=176394"},"modified":"2024-01-10T12:07:58","modified_gmt":"2024-01-10T12:07:58","slug":"petition-ban-magazine-plastic-toys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.natgeokids.com\/ie\/kids-club\/cool-kids\/general-kids-club\/petition-ban-magazine-plastic-toys\/","title":{"rendered":"Skye’s petition to ban magazine plastic toys!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

10-year-old Skye Neville from Fairbourne, Wales, is campaigning to stop plastic toy freebies being sold with children’s magazines. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skye loves<\/em> reading her favourite kids’ magazines, but hates<\/em> that they come at a cost to the environment<\/strong> due to the free, often non-recyclable plastic toys<\/strong> on the front.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Many of these magazine toys – known as ‘covermounts’ – are thrown away<\/strong>, ending up in landfill<\/strong>. Some also have a large carbon footprint<\/strong> because they’re produced in China<\/strong>. This makes them cheaper to make, but means they’re transported huge distances<\/strong> to get them to the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All in all, the tiny toys aren’t good for our planet <\/strong>\u2013 and Skye has had enough of them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plastic petition!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Skye knew she had to take action <\/strong>against the “pointless plastic toys<\/strong>” that flood through her letterbox each month…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, taking inspiration from two young girls – who succeeded in petitioning McDonald’s to remove plastic toys from its Happy Meals<\/strong> – Skye decided to launch a petition of her own. Her petition asks publishers to ban plastic toys on comics and magazines<\/strong>. After all, if McDonald’s can do the right thing, Skye thought, why can’t publishers? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I just want the magazine”, Skye writes on her petition page. “I<\/strong> don’t want or need the cheap plastic toys<\/strong> which are either played with for a few minutes<\/strong>, or break on the first use<\/strong> and are thrown away<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, Skye wants magazines to offer sustainable <\/strong>and ethical <\/strong>gifts \u2013 or no gifts at all<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n

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At the time of writing, her petition has received a whopping 64,000 signatures<\/strong>, and she’s hoping to get many more! Even more excitingly, publishers and news companies are already taking notice <\/strong>of Skye’s campaign. In February 2021<\/strong>, Skye’s campaign was featured in her local newspaper<\/strong>, and she’s now been written about by national publications, <\/strong>like the BBC! <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Creating change<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On the 23rd of March 2021<\/strong>, Waitrose<\/strong> announced its decision to no longer sell children’s magazines containing disposable plastic toys<\/strong>. Magazine publishers have eight weeks <\/strong>to change their ways \u2013 or face being banned <\/strong>from the supermarket’s shelves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This decision was directly<\/em><\/strong> inspired <\/strong>by Skye’s stand against plastic \u2013 what an amazing result!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What is Nat Geo Kids doing?<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Here at Nat Geo Kids HQ, we’ve been working hard to clean up our act<\/strong> for some time now. We’ll be honest with you, becoming<\/strong> green isn’t always easy<\/strong>, and the challenges are harder in some countries than in others, but we’re not going to let that stop us!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past two years, we’ve made big changes to our UK and Ireland editions. We’ve switched the plastic bags<\/strong> our magazines used to come in for paper envelopes<\/strong>. We’re switching our free gifts to plastic-free<\/strong> (including plastic-free packaging<\/strong>), and soon these will be made of paper or card<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plus, we’ve moved the production of our free gifts to the UK. This means that all our items are produced<\/strong> locally<\/strong>, supporting UK businesses, and don’t need to be shipped overseas<\/strong> to get here! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’re hoping to make these important changes <\/strong>to our magazines in Australia and New Zealand soon, too. Plus, we’ve still got a little further to go before we’re completely<\/em> plastic-free<\/strong>. For example, we still use a strip of sticky tape<\/strong> to attach gifts to the front of our magazines in shops. We’re searching for an eco-alternative<\/strong> and we’ll update you as soon as we have one!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Watch Skye’s interview with Nat Geo Kids! <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We sat down with this amazing young eco-hero to find out more…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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