EGN NEWS DESK
TIE places that all the way down to loopholes within the EU’s toy security regime. While the bloc has the “strictest” guidelines on toy security on this planet, the foyer says, they don’t cowl sellers from outdoors the EU when the sale is facilitated via an internet market.
“It’s getting worse as a result of these platforms have gotten increasingly more fashionable,” Catherine Van Reeth, director common at TIE, instructed POLITICO. This wasn’t inherently a foul factor, she added, saying TIE’s members — which embody LEGO, The Walt Disney Company, and Barbie-maker Mattel — additionally promote via on-line platforms.
“But the distinction is that then you definately purchase from a model that you realize and a model that prioritizes security, whereas we discovered that a lot of toys which can be being bought on on-line marketplaces are bought by third party sellers, usually not from the EU, who do not actually care about security.”
The information backs this up. In 2023, the EU was a internet importer of toys from the remainder of the world, in keeping with Eurostat, with 80 p.c coming from China. Nearly all toy chemical alerts issued within the EU in 2024 concerned these coming from … you guessed it. China.
3. Eat, drink, journey and waste
Presents, journey and lavish, meat-heavy meals: all frequent options of the festive season, and all an environmentalist’s nightmare. Let’s begin with packaging waste. We’re speaking hundreds and hundreds of meters of wrapping paper. According to the environmental non-profit Repak, Ireland generated about 97,000 tons of packaging waste at Christmas in 2022.
Then there’s wasted meals. According to a examine carried out by the French ecological transition company ADEME in 2022, 83 p.c of meals are ready in extra portions over the vacations.
