I set my son’s Thomas the Tank bucket, in which he keeps all his Thomas trains, down by the computer today when I went online to make sure I hadn’t missed any. I found this pretty comprehensive list of recalls at the Consumer Protection website, and discovered that, while the trains we still have are supposedly all right, the bucket itself has been recalled! As I scrolled through the list, I also discovered that several other of my son’s toys had been recalled due to lead paint: a Geotrax car, a wooden puzzle, a trowel, a flashlight, a toy truck, and a Pixar car. So I’ve thrown all of these toys out, but now am left wondering whether I should just get rid of everything. Seems like there’s a recall just about every day now. I think the lesson is pretty clear: do not buy toys that are made in China. When you receive these toys as gifts, don’t open them.

This presents a problem if you’re already concerned about generating needless waste, as we all should be. Even if you have a policy of buying very few toys for your child, he or she is likely to receive them on birthdays and holidays from well-meaning family and friends. If the toys are a danger to children, they need to be thrown away, but for those of us who find it painful to throw away anything usable for fear of it ending up in a landfill, it’s a confusing dilemma. If you have answers for what to do with lead-paint toys beyond relegating them to a trashcan, I’d love to hear them!