[Reprinted with authorization from “University Line” published by School of Journalism and Communication, CUHK]
Do you remember buying toys as a child? Hong Kong is rich in material goods, and brand-new toys are readily available, and as time goes by, they pile up like a mountain at home. “After buying a good toy, the children get bored very quickly, and then they have to buy it again and again.” Natalie, who has two children, expresses the waste of Hong Kong parents who love their children and often buy more toys.
However, Hong Kong is so rich in land. For many parents, facing a house full of toys, do they all send them to landfills? As the sharing economy sweeps Hong Kong, second-hand toys are also on the rise. Some mothers set up toy rental stores, and some social enterprises hold toy exchange activities to let the concept of environmental protection take root in children’s lives and promote the meaning of sharing.
Reporter｜Ant Haitong
Editor｜Chen Xintao
Photography｜Yi Haitong Chen Xintao
A few years ago, Natalie’s children were two and four years old. She found that the children grew up fast and quickly got tired of the same toy. “Even children aged 18 months to two years old can already choose toys by themselves—today I want to play with small balls, but when I get bored tomorrow, I will play with toilet paper.” Although the house is full of toys, we still need to keep adding new ones to meet the needs of the children. Natalie is also worried that most of the toys in Hong Kong are made of plastic, or that they are poisonous to children. “Every year when we visit relatives in Australia, we buy a lot of toys back. The quality of the toys there is better.” Natalie also noticed that second-hand toys and circular economy are popular in foreign countries, but Hong Kong lacks such platforms.In order to reduce waste, she partnered with her friend Jade and founded in 2019Happy Batonproviding a toy rental service.
Seeing that toys are favored for a short time, Happy Baton is launchedMonthly rental system for toys: Customers can choose different plans on the website, and receive a toy box containing four toys every month. The monthly fee is HK$550. A month later, the driver will come to the door to collect the old toy box and send it for disinfection, and deliver new ones, and the cycle repeats. “Parents will think, ‘This is better, you can choose all (toys) for me, so I don’t have to think about it myself.'” In addition, Happy Baton also provides large toys for rent, such as climbing frames, small slides, etc. individual needs. From opening with only a dozen customers to now accumulating over a thousand customers, Natalie is happy to see more and more people accepting toy rental.
Big enough to change quickly to meet the needs of children to change toys
In addition to changing likes and dislikes of toys, children at different stages have different needs for toys. “Many people will ask, do (babies) from zero to six months need toy education? In fact, their bodies may not move very fast, but their brains have developed very fast.” Take a wooden stand for hanging toys For example, in order to match the vision of children at different stages of growth, they change the hanging ornaments above the crib every month, from black and white to three primary colors to gradient colors, to train children’s sensitivity to colors. Another musical bell that can make a sound just by pressing it is suitable for young children with “short fingers and can’t hold things firmly”. It can play pitches from do to so to satisfy their interest in music and musical instruments.
Natalie also hopes that children will learn to share and cherish through renting out toys: “Those toys are not for them to own, and they will gradually understand that they have to clean up by themselves every time. Because the driver uncle is going to take away the toy box and give them new toys.” Natalie I also hope that the children will learn to cherish the toys they have borrowed and share them with other children.
Abandon the new and take the old to suit your heart and save space
More and more parents also respect the sharing of toys. Samantha, who has a daughter, has at least 30 toys at home. Even if she doesn’t take the initiative to buy new toys, many relatives and friends will buy her daughter gifts. Her daughter is only 19 months old, and Samantha’s house is already full of toys: “There are too many toys in the house, and I don’t need to buy them at all. Sometimes I don’t even want second-hand toys.”
However, the many good intentions of relatives and friends may not be completely satisfactory. When her daughter was 10 months old, Samantha joined Happy Baton’s monthly toy box rental program. She described renting toys as a good idea, especially as children sometimes lose interest in toys after only a week. “You don’t know what children like. It’s a waste if you don’t like it after buying it.” In the toy box that just arrived, Samantha received a few marine life toys, but her daughter was unwilling to play with them, so she was glad she didn’t buy them for her daughter class toys.
Samantha also referred to the parenting methods on the Internet, divided the toys at home into batches, and only took out some of them for her daughter to play with each time to keep it fresh: “When I see that she doesn’t play with a toy, I will put it away and take out another one. I haven’t seen it for a while, and when she sees that toy again, she will be interested again.” As for the old toys that her daughter really doesn’t need, she will give them to her brother’s family who just had a newborn, or donate them to charity mechanism.
Samantha advocates second-hand toys because she hopes to avoid waste and at the same time teach children to practice environmental protection in all aspects of life. “However, traditional parents are still relatively conservative. Firstly, they are worried about cleanliness. Secondly, Chinese people always prefer brand-new items. If they feel hurt, they will buy new ones.” She hopes that more people will recognize and accept second-hand toys in the future, and popularize the concept of “toy sharing”. concept.
Bartering gives toys a second life
In addition to paying to rent toys, bartering is also a way out.Li Junye founded a social enterprise in 2017“Recycled Toy Store”, through recycling old toys, holding fairs, workshops and other activities, to encourage children to share toys. In the first few years of his business, he collected second-hand toys from the public and resold them in bazaars or markets. At its peak, his warehouse was filled with tens of thousands of discarded toys. However, since the outbreak of the epidemic, the income of social enterprises has plummeted, and they cannot renew the lease of the warehouse to store toys. Li Junye is also worried that the returned toys are unhygienic and no one wants them, so he stopped recycling toys.
He summed up the experience of the past few years and found that the public tends to put the responsibility of preserving toys on the recyclers. Sending away unwanted toys easily, “They felt relieved in an instant. They pushed the toys that had been accumulated at home for many years to us, and also passed the responsibility to us.” He hopes that parents and children will realize that while they have the ability to buy a large number of toys, they also Have the ability to handle a large number of toys. For this reason, he now only acts as an event coordinator, organizing toy recycling workshops and exchange markets, allowing children to make their own and exchange toys.
Initiate a one-for-one market to reflect on the value of toys
Lai Chun-ye has held seven “one-for-one toy fairs” so far, with an average of about 100 people visiting each time, and the next one will be held in March. He recruited parent-child stall owners online, arranged for them to set up stalls in the market, and exchange toys with tourists. As the name suggests, there are as many trading opportunities as there are toys that participants bring.
The same toy may be tasteless to those who discard it, but it may be regarded as a treasure by others. There was a kid who wanted to take a scooter with him at the market, but he was afraid to exchange it because the toy he brought was too small. For this situation, Lai said that the type or size of the toy is not important, the key is the value to the child: “The scooter has no value to the person who brought it, but it made the child’s eyes shine. I really want it—then I can exchange it!”
However, Lai emphasized that he did not want to give toys directly to children, explaining: “Children are very interesting. When they see a lot of toys, even if they may not choose one that they like, they will want to take them all home.” So he decided to set a The “one-for-one” restriction allows children who come to exchange gifts to learn to choose, only take away the most wanted toys, and leave other toys for others.
Tinkering and learning attitudes from toys
In addition to the market, Lai Chun Yip will also hold workshops to teach children how to make toys by themselves. He will teach children to disassemble the parts of old toys, add paper-wrapped drink boxes, toilet paper tubes and other materials, and piece together original toys. Although the toys are not as beautiful as the new ones, many children are still very disappointed. They take their creations home and treasure them, and even ask their families to collect waste paper and cardboard boxes to continue making toys. “They will really bring back (the next workshop) (the next workshop), and tell me: ‘Look, Sir, I made it at home myself!'” Le Gan said.
In addition to environmental protection and frugality, Lai believes that recycling toys has more meaning. “I used to buy a plastic basketball board worth more than ten yuan. After it was broken, I could use adhesive tape to repair it. It was broken and repaired again until it could no longer be repaired.” Throw it away, and don’t try to fix it: “People tend to avoid a lot of bad and rotten things, and the easiest way to solve it with money is to buy a new one.” But he believes that parents should take the opportunity to educate their children to face difficulties, Find ways to fix it—not just with broken toys, but with other problems in life as well.
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