high tech toys

Stacey over at Fussbucket just posted a story from the NY Times about the growing market of high tech toys for little kids. Apparently the little guys want to do what they see us doing. She reports,

"The so-called youth electronics category accounts for more than 5 percent of all toy sales. Overall toy sales have been flat at around $22 billion a year for the last five years, according to the market research firm NPD Group. The industry sees growth potential in this new category, the article says. Sounds like we'll be seeing a lot more of these kid-gadgets in the future."

I just did a quick search on what happens to old computers and electronic equipment when they break or we get tired of them (which happens quickly for kids as we all know). Our electronic devices are made with toxic chemicals like lead, mercury, arsenic, stuff like that. When we throw them in the trash, they go into our landfills and leach into the soil and our water. When we "recycle" them, industry insiders say 80 percent of the e-waste material is exported, and 90 percent of that material goes to China. There, lots of women and children strip these devices by hand for every reusable bit of plastic or metal. Including lead, it seems. This whole cycle just makes me want to cry. And think long and hard about buying electronic gear. And wonder what we do with that big old monitor sitting down in the basement.