Nursery group bans children from using glitter on crafts

CHILDREN are to be banned from using glitter at a group of nurseries due to concerns about the damage it does to the environment.

The substance, loved by youngsters for making Christmas cards and baubles, is being banished at Tops Day Nurseries across the south of England.

Managing director Cheryl Hadland said she made the decision after realising glitter is a microplastic which can harm the environment.

“You can see when the children are taking their bits of craft home and there’s glitter on the cardboard, it blows off and into the air and on to the road, and it’s only a tiny little bit, but we’ve got 3,000 children and they’re all doing Christmas craft at the moment, so we’ve got glitter everywhere.

“There are 22,000 nurseries in the country, so if we’re all getting through kilos and kilos of glitter, we’re doing terrible damage, and these children, the world is for them.

“So here we are wrecking the place for them, and I didn’t even know. I’ve been running the nurseries for 27 years and I had no idea that we were doing all that damage.

“You can’t really recycle it because it’s so small, you can’t separate it from anything.”

Ms Hadland, added: “I love glitter, it’s lovely, shiny, twinkly stuff, so it is kind of sad, but when we’re wrecking the environment we really can’t be doing it.

“So we’re just going to have to start getting our heads round using stuff that’s more sustainable.”

She said the decision has only just been made so parents may not be aware of it, but she insisted they are likely to be supportive.