Sustainable Education or a Cynical Support for the Market?

Using the planet’s resources to create items that are inevitably destined for recycling or landfill - should we support this?

A worldwide initiative to boost the consumer behaviour of children has launched. This is an attempt to stem the perceived drift away from dependency on manufactured and processed goods that is developing in young people. This is causing controversy. 

The UN has acknowledged the actions of the young are an important factor in how society faces up to the challenges our planet faces.

“Young people are key actors in raising awareness, running educational programmes, promoting sustainable lifestyles,  conserving nature, supporting renewable energy, adopting environmentally-friendly practices and implementing adaptation and mitigation projects. [UNFCCC]

Youth constitute the majority of the population in many countries and have an increasingly strong social and environmental awareness, which has the power to transform our societies towards a low-carbon and climate resilient future. [United Nations Joint Framework Initiative on Children, Youth and Climate Change, 2010, http://bit.ly/1FBQsfy]”

Market makers are worried that the youngest members of society might be significantly influenced by their peers and siblings.  

We could be witnessing the emergence of a post-consumerism society. A society where the natural world gains our respect and the fragility of eco-systems are recognised. This will dramatically change our relationship with the economy. The economy has been placed ahead of society and the environment for many decades.

Some parents have recognised the mixed message from the retail giants - who claim to be caring for the planet by recycling a plastic wrapper while extruding plastic trinkets to boost their sales and capture the young as their future consumers.

Retailers swipe back by claiming that the plastics they are producing are educational, can be recycled and that sustainability is a top priority for them.

What do you think?

Can it ever be justified to use finite resources for the production of plastic toys to educate children to shop in this manner?

Will every parent recycle responsibly?