Glitter... Use It, Or Lose It?

With a sudden amount of home-crafting about to take place, we’re answering a frequent question we get about GLITTER 🎉

“I know glitter is bad for the environment, but I already have a bunch - Isn’t it better to use it all up so that it isn’t wasted?"

a)  You’re awesome.

b)  It’s not your fault there is so much stuff out there to buy/use that causes environmental harm.

d)  You’re not going to like our answer 😑

Our opinion (and that of scientists weighing in on the matter) is that glitter is the pits.  We think it should be called what it is:  Everlasting Polyethylene Terephthalate Shards.

Use it or lose it?  

If you knew you held in your hands a bag of toxic plastic pollution that once released, could never ever be cleaned up - that the majority of it would add to the plastic in our oceans/waterways or soil, and that a portion of it would contribute to the death of marine life, would you willingly release it into the environment?

Just rinsing it off of your hands (good luck with that by the way) washes it down the drain where much of it will pass through and be released into the waterways/ocean.

What’s stuck to your clothes will sprinkle off into the soil or onto the streets where it will wash down storm drains and go out to sea.

Our recommendation:  Bag it up and send it to landfill.

Double/triple bag it so it doesn’t break open and spill all over (use old bread bags, tortilla bags, chip bags, newspaper bags…).

Be done with Polyethylene Terephthalate Shards, for good (literally for the good of the planet 🌍 and all the little living things on it 🐌).

*Same goes for glitter made from bio-plastic - it’s no better. 

For a deeper dive: New York Times: What Is Glitter?