Getting rid of recalled toys can be a problem
Companies and parents are scrambling to figure out what to do with millions of recalled toys that are either tainted with lead or otherwise hazardous to children.
Mattel mat, which on Tuesday recalled about 19 million toys worldwide, said it is working on a "responsible approach" but could not provide details.
Meanwhile, many parents are confused about how to dispose of the toys. 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, Courtney Wilson discovered she had some recalled Polly Pocket dolls with magnets from Mattel, and she's decided to throw them out.
But Jennifer Mulligan of Franklin, Tenn., who says her 6-year-old daughter "probably has about every Polly Pockets ever made," plans to take the recalled dolls back to the store. "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 follows other recalls of more than 10 million toys since June in the USA 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 with lead paint.
In June, 1.5 million items from RC2's Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway toy line were recalled because of lead paint.
Many retailers, including Wal-Mart, wmt are offering shoppers the option of returning the recalled toys to stores, from which they are sent back to the manufacturers. But they prefer that shoppers send them directly to manufacturers for a refund.
"Certainly, there is a significant expense to manage a recall," said Eric Johnson, business professor at Dartmouth College. "This is a big headache."
