NEW YORK [—] Now that toy companies have issued recalls for millions of Chinese-made toys that are either tainted with lead or otherwise hazardous to children, they are scrambling to figure out what to do with them.
Mattel Inc., which on Tuesday recalled about 19 billion toys worldwide, said it was working on a “responsible approach” but could not provide details.
Amid the lack of clarity, many parents are confused about how to dispose of the toys. That may mean many of them will end up in the trash and eventually in landfills, where they could possibly leach toxins into the groundwater.
All parents know at this point is that they need to get them out of their kids’ toy chests.
In Nashville, Tenn., Courtney Wilson learned she had some recalled Polly Pocket dolls with magnets from Mattel, and she decided to throw them out. Meanwhile, another parent, Jennifer Mulligan of Franklin, Tenn., made a different choice: she plans to return the dolls to the store.
Mulligan said that her 6-year-old daughter “probably has about every Polly Pockets ever made.”
She added: “If we did have an affected toy, I’d see it as lesson for her. … If there was something wrong with the toy, it’s up to the store to replace it with another toy.”
The Mattel recall is the latest in a slew of recalls involving more than 10 million toys since June in the U.S. alone.
The most alarming has been the recall of toys covered with lead-based paint. Children who ingest lead-laced paint can suffer brain damage, and improper disposal of lead-based paint can damage the environment.
Mattel’s recalls cover several hundred thousand “Sarge” vehicles and almost a million toys from its Fisher-Price line, including Sesame Street and Nickelodeon characters.
Its recalls follow the recall of 1.5 million items from RC2 Corp.’s Thomas &Friends Wooden Railway toy line, announced in June.
Many retailers, such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., are offering the option of returning the recalled toys to stores where they are sent back to the makers, but they prefer shoppers send them back to manufacturers in packaging that the maker provides in exchange for a refund.
“Certainly, there is a significant expense to manage a recall,” said Eric Johnson, professor of Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. “This is a big headache.”
Lead-painted toys fall under the category of products that would need to be destroyed or properly disposed of, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission in Washington, D.C.
But plenty of other toys, such as the millions of toys including Batman and Polly Pockets recalled this week by Mattel because of hazardous magnets, don’t necessarily have to be destroyed.
Still, they could present future legal risks if they pop up in a thrift store or other resale site. The magnetic toys were recalled because their small, powerful magnets could harm children if swallowed.
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