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Coles is being attacked after Stikeez collectables were found washed up on a WA beach.

Sea Shepherd Australia’s Marine Debris Campaign wrote in a Facebook post that a volunteer named Danny found two Stikeez collectables on Beach north of Perth on Saturday.

“Wildlife can’t tell whether an item is made of plastic or something to eat. If ingested a small, colourful plastic toy vegetable can be life threatening,” the post said.

“For Coles, this Stikeez promotion might have been aimed at healthy eating for children, but for an animal there’s nothing healthy about a stomach full of plastic.”

The Stikeez promotion ran from February 13 to Tuesday March 26 or until most stores ran out.

Not everyone thought Coles was to blame though.

“Coles is irresponsible in producing the bits of useless plastic, but we as consumers are irresponsible in accepting them and allowing our children to make us shop this way. If we refused them Coles wouldn’t have a market.”

“Blame the people that threw it there (or lost it…?)” he wrote. “I went to the beach on Saturday and saw a plastic wrapper from a health food product. No whinging, I picked it up and put it in the bin.”

“Can you please stop blaming inanimate objects for stupid people’s actions? Did coles have anything to do with it being on the beach? Did they put it there? No? Then how could they possibly answer. Did the plastic grow legs and walk there? No? So how is plastic the problem again? Why did we ban plastic instead of modifying it to break down within weeks, make fuel as a byproduct, save jobs lower industrial fuel manufacturing in the process, this all sounds more eco friendly right? Yes it does, but instead we let opinionated idiots runs the program. PLASTIC ISN’T THE PROBLEM, STUPID PEOPLE ARE!”

Others recommended saying no to collectables at the check-out.

“If no one took them, the supermarkets would not have these environmentally destructive promotions,” one woman wrote.

“You know, if people don’t buy this rubbish, they’ll stop selling it…It’s up to the consumer to send the message,” said another.

Some even commented that a child could just have easily left them behind when playing at the beach.

A Marine Debris spokesperson for Sea Shepherd told Yahoo News Australia they want Coles to stop campaigns involving single-use plastics.

“Given that Coles is making efforts to improve in areas such as its plastic bag policy, we were surprised to see them giving away these single-use plastic toys in their stores,” the spokesperson said.

“However we were not surprised that, months on, we are found them at one of our regular beach clean-ups.

“Coles Stikeez collectables are single-use plastic items that will be used once and go on to live forever once the ‘craze’ passes.”

There was a similar backlash after one of the Little Shop toys were found on a QLD beach.  Read that here.

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  • The shops are not to blame for what people do with what they buy or are given to them.

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  • Didn’t they just find plastic in Antarctica? I think this is an issue that the world is trying to change, but like all change, it will take time. The focus is that everyone seems to be on board

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  • I think the focus needs to start on more single use plastics that can be removed such as straws, plates and cutlery. These can be banned and replaced with alternatives and we can continue to move down this path making a more significant difference and changing habits.

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  • What about the millions of other pieces of plastic found in our environment? I think there should be harsher penalties for those who litter as whether or not Coles produces collectible items, people will still litter.

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  • if we all focus on reducing plastic that will help build a better future

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  • it isn’t only these types of toys you find on the beach. You find things like balls that kids play with at the edge of the water or in the water and miss catching them. There is balloons that people let go, either deliberately or accidentally. There is general rubbish that floats into the air when the trucks go around emptying bins – domestic and business ones.

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  • Coles aren’t responsible for it once it leaves the store.

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  • It is not surprising that people are throwing these silly things away but agree that it’s probably not Coles’ fault and more the responsibility of the consumer.

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  • I’m not surprised. A lot of these items will end up in landfill when people get bored with them.

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  • I agree you can’t blame Coles for people being irresponsible and leaving their trash every where.

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  • What’s going on? Nothing happend.. I think so.

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  • I don’t think Coles should be blamed entirely. I’ll admit I love collecting these things and have them in a bag for when the kids want to play with them.

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  • The blame game, no one wants to take responsibility.

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  • Not fair to blame Coles really. We don’t ban every other plastic that ends up on beaches.

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  • ” these single-use plastic toys in their stores” ? Who said they are single use? My son is still playing with them, he makes me lots of lovely soups in his toy kitchen. If you don’t want them say no to them, pretty simple.

    Reply

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