TV presenter bans children from playing with plastic toys
![The ex-Countryfile presenter recently held a plastic-free children's birthday party. [Photo: PA]](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/TpUMtnDrx3DnmWPd5mFINA--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTEyNDI7aD02Nzc-/https://media-mbst-pub-ue1.s3.amazonaws.com/creatr-uploaded-images/2019-07/4a947940-a946-11e9-af37-43508b8db125)
Former Countryfile presenter, Julia Bradbury, has said she will not buy her children plastic toys in a bid to do her bit for the planet.
The 48-year-old recently held a plastic-free children’s birthday party with “goody bags made of recycled Indian newspapers”.
She has three children with her partner Gerard Cunningham, a seven-year-old boy and four-year-old twin girls.
Although she does her best to avoid plastic, the presenter admitted to The Mirror that she still “has a cupboard full of them” because her friends keep buying them.
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“I have a friend who kept buying them plastic, and every time I said, ‘Please don’t’.”
As well as the Indian newspaper goody bags, Bradbury’s plastic-free party was “full of sustainable toys, recyclable plates and cups, no balloons, pizza in cardboard boxes and glass water bottles.”
She said her children don’t need balloons because they “don’t notice them” anyway.
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A recent British Heart Foundation poll found that a quarter of parents throw away toys that are in perfect working order.
However, plastic toys aren’t counted as single-use plastic by Greenpeace UK because they can be used time and time again.
Plastic toys last for about 15-20 years before going into the waste stream after being passed to other family members and then to charities.
Some companies are doing their bit, too. Lego’s leaves, bushes and trees are now officially green and made from plastic sourced from sugarcane.
READ MORE: We’re unintentionally consuming huge amounts of plastic
“The last present was a wooden toy. My little boy has had Lego gifts, but it’s not single use and can last for decades.” Bradbury said.
As well as imparting a plastic-free lifestyle on her children, Bradbury is keen for them to have a healthy attitude towards nudity.
“They see me walking around naked all the time.” She explains, in a bid to normalise nudity.
