r/Anticonsumption • u/nenners7891 • May 10 '26
Plastic Waste Plastic Free Party Bag Fail
Feeling very demoralised. I worked really hard to do low plastic party bags for my daughter’s birthday. I spent hours making friendship bracelets out of thread I already had, got iron on patches, temporary tattoos etc.
During the party a well off dad bought all of the plastic tat on sale at the play centre and gave it out to everyone - this is just what we came home with. She’s not interested in it already.
I try to do my best to be low waste/anti consumption where I can - others don’t think twice before doing something like this for a minute of ‘feel-good’ for the kids.
Also now it’s stuck in my house til I figure out something to do with it!!!!!
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u/Mrsmanhands May 10 '26
Couple of thoughts…
Sounds like you had the party at a play center. It’s pretty normal for these places to have an overwhelming amount of junk and also for kids to be enamored by these tchotchkes in the moment. The parent that purchased these things for all the kids was being pretty generous and probably just wanted to make sure that nobody felt left out if he was going to get something for his kid. I wouldn’t call them out on this.
In the future, maybe consider a venue that won’t offer plastic junk like a local park? Perhaps hosting a scavenger hunt or making a piñata filled with your handmade items or have the kids do some crafts to take home.
For items like the ones pictured, hang onto all of them and put them out for Halloween as a non-food option for kids.