So Many Toys!! Are they recyclable?

We can definitely tell it's the holiday season at the Tews household! At our house, this time of year involves lots of parties and gifts for the kids. My two youngest have

birthdays so they will get gifts for that on top of the already-crazy Christmas hoard they receive! It seems like no matter how much I try, I just can't avoid the inevitable mountain of toys that wind up spilling over from the playroom into every other room of the house.

Years ago, I started the annual tradition of a Christmas Toy Purge. The kids pick out a set number of toys to donate each year. At the same time, any broken toys or ones with missing pieces get thrown away. It's crazy that almost every year we fill an entire garbage bag with toys not good enough for donation. It really bothers me that so many of our toys will just end up in landfills. Especially since I know I am not the only one carelessly tossing toys to make room for new ones.

One year I decided to find out if is there a better option. It turns out that there are several toy companies trying to go green. Companies like Hasbro, Lego, Mattel, Spin Master and V-Tech will make sure those toys don't end up as garbage. They will give the materials a second life! These companies completely cover the shipping costs to send toys back to be recycled. TerraCycle even offers a points-back program for you to collect a donation for your non-profit or school of choice!

By choosing to send toys back for recycling instead of throwing them away, you accomplish two things at once.

• Declutter your storage space by reusing the boxes that your online orders or other gifts came in.

• Send them back out the door with toys ready for recycling.

I am so excited to be able to recycle toys instead of toss them away this year – and it's all so simple if you check out the websites below. Here are several links of toy recycling programs to help you not throw your toys away this year either:

L.O.L. Surprise! They take packaging, accessories and products.

https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/brigades/lol-surprise

Hasbro Toy Recycling Program (includes Nerf, My Little Pony, PlaySkool)

https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/brigades/hasbro

Spin Master Toys (excludes Kinetic Sand and Orbeez)

https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/brigades/spin-master

VTech and Leapfrog Toys Recycling

https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/brigades/vtech-leapfrog

Mattel Playback Program (includes Hot Wheels, Barbie, Fisher Price, American Girl)

https://www2.mattel.com/en-us/playroom/playback

Lego Replay Program

https://www.lego.com/en-us/sustainability/environment/replay

BONUS! – Carter's Baby and Kids Clothes Recycling program!

https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/brigades/carters