Looming eco-problem?

Tiny, brightly colored loom bands have been conquering the world of children's toys since the trend took off last summer. The Rainbow Loom, a product invented by a former Nissan employee in the US, has reportedly sold more than 3 million units.

Using such looms, children's little fingers weave and weave: bracelets, necklaces, and even more intricate items. Many parents are delighted that their kids are doing something crafty and non-digital for a change. The activity has even been described as addictive.

But some have been sounding the alarm over the potential health hazards and environmental impacts of this new toy craze. And this plays into a larger question of where plastic toys go to die. The answer lies in waste incinerators, landfills - and oceans.

Plaything to pollution

"When this craze for loom bands subsides, they will inevitably fall into the waste stream," an official statement from the United Kingdom-based waste management group WasteConnect says. The group incidentally denies that it called loom bands an "eco ticking time bomb," as quoted by the Daily Mail.

But conservationists point to potential danger indeed. "A lot [of loom bands] are getting dropped in the streets, and then they get washed into the drains, and then they get tipped into our rivers, and then they end up on our beaches," said Tracey Williams.

Williams is heavily involved with cleanup activities in her region of Newquay Beach, England. She's had plenty of experience picking up plastic waste from the coastal region along southwest England's shore - "It's shocking how much washes up sometimes."

Williams has been monitoring the beaches there since the late 1990s, when a particular kind of plastic toy began washing up on the shores. In 1997 a huge wave hit a cargo ship called the Tokio Express, and 62 containers fell off the ship into the sea. One of them contained 5 million bits of Lego.

Williams established the Lego Lost at Sea Facebook page to document the beach-cleaning finds - it's nurtured a whole community around the Lego-hunting beachcombers. "Some of the items are quite rare - particularly the green dragons; there's always a bit of excitement when somebody finds one of those," Williams said.

Williams notes that she's also recently started to see increasing numbers of loom bands on the beaches. "I've been picking [loom bands] up every day - yesterday I picked up perhaps five necklaces or bracelets," Williams told DW. "I think it's going to be a major issue," she said.

Delayed reaction

Jeroen Dagevos of the Dutch ocean conservation group Nordsee Foundation is somewhat more cautious in his estimation. In 13 days of combing the Dutch coasts for waste, "We never found loom bands on a beach, in a net, or in the stomach of a bird," Dagevos told DW.

But, he adds, this doesn't mean loom bands won't become an ocean litter scourge over time. He cited an incident of a large quantity of plastic discs used for water purification being lost along the coast of France. "We found the first one here after one-and-a-half years," Dagevos said. "There is a delay," he added.

Dagevos also thinks the tiny size of the bands is an issue. "Small particles in the environment are very difficult to get out - microplastics in cosmetics, for example, are almost impossible," he said. "All plastic items pose a risk for choking or entanglement of sea life," he added.

Yet both Dagevos and Williams agree that although plastic toys becoming waste - including in oceans - is a problem, toys as waste are overshadowed by other sources.

In a Nordsee Foundation analysis of waste collected from Dutch shores, items like plastic nets and ropes, plastic food and drink containers, and plastic bags topped the list. Toys ranked in at number 34.

Disposable society

Greenpeace International's detox campaigner Ilze Smit also said the loom bands trend indicates a larger problem. The general problem with short life-chain products, she said, "is that they will end up in the environment and they will be waste for a very long time - they are extremely persistent, they don't break down."

The group does have specific concerns around loom bands as well, particularly in terms of the product's chemistry. Smit cited an unpublished report indicating potentially high levels of phthalates - "We don't know whether there are hazardous chemicals inside those loom bands." The group emphasized a need for governments to publicly test such items.

In addition, the group is concerned regarding potential levels of pollution from the production process, Smit told DW. She also repeated concerns over the risk for choking or entanglement by wildlife.

But overall, Smit echoed the concept that overall consumption, including of plastic toys, needs a rethink. "Loom bands are a real example showing that there's a way bigger problem of the usage of plastic in our society," she said. Parents especially need to consider how to reduce, reuse and recycle.

In terms of loom bands, WasteConnect pointed out that "there is no known way of recycling these bands as they are made from a material that is too heat resistant to reshape into new products."

Awareness and action

For plastic ocean litter, Williams sees citizen concern as a driving force for conservation: "I think it's down to everyone to help pick it up." She's also started the Flotsam Army group, to contribute to an "archeology of the waves," as the many plastic soldiers washing up can be easily identified and dated.

"You show someone a picture of plastic rubbish on the beach, and they don't care," Williams said. "But show them a bit of Lego, and they are suddenly interested - they're reminded of their childhood," she said.

Williams hopes to continue channeling this emotional connection people have with toys into beach preservation. Maybe in some decades as the "loom band generation" comes of age, this can translate into a deeper kind of change.