Nurseries’ bar on glitter to protect the oceans

CHILDREN have been stopped from using glitter at a group of nurseries over concerns it ends up in the sea and enters the food chain.

Tops Day Nurseries are now looking for environmentally friendly alternatives after glitter was likened to microbeads – tiny plastic particles that have been discovered in fish.

Researchers at Massey University in New Zealand recently warned these fish could pose a threat to human health if eaten. Managing director of the nursery group, Cheryl Hadland, said she made the decision to ban glitter after realising that it can harm sea life.

She said: ‘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.

‘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.’

She said the move came after a survey of parents found 86 per cent wanted the nurseries to be ‘eco-sustainable’.

Tops Day Nurseries has 19 sites across south England.

Sue Kinsey, of the Marine Conservation Society, praised the ‘proactive approach’, adding: ‘While glitter is only a small part of the microplastic load getting into watercourses and the sea, steps like these will all add up to something greater.’

‘We’re doing terrible damage’