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What happened to all the recalled lead-tainted toys and other products?

One company that recalled 350,000 lead-tainted journals and bookmarks plans to burn them in an incinerator, but they are currently storing the hazardous products in 55-gallon drums near its headquarters.

Toy makers are now investigating whether they need to treat their tainted products with stabilization chemicals or if they must seal the toys in giant polyethylene bags. Mattel has decided to recycle some of its recalled toys into items like park benches, but in China several of the recalled toys can still be found on store shelves.

A few toys have even shown up on eBay and on websites that sell products in bulk.

Unfortunately, most of the unsafe toys and other products may still be in the hands of consumers.

U.S. companies face strict federal regulations for disposing of recalled toys, but they are only responsible for the toys that are retuned to them.

Consumers are never told precisely how many products are returned, whether some are shipped abroad to be resold, or even which factory supplied the toys and whether companies are continuing to use that factory.

Executives at companies involved in recent recalls answered questions about their returned toys, but they were not eager to discuss the whereabouts of the toys that have not come back.

Mattel and RC2, the maker of Thomas & Friends toys, are storing the returned toys while they fight off lawsuits accusing them of harming children with those products. After the cases are resolved, Mattel says, it will try to recycle products.

Companies like Toys R Us and Jo-Ann Stores say they are storing the returned toys in warehouses until they formulate a disposal plan.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires companies to test their returned products for an aggregate level of lead to determine a disposal plan. If the tests come in at higher than 5 parts per million, companies must take extra steps to make sure the lead will not contaminate the environment. If the average is under that level, the toys can go in landfills.

There is no federal law or regulation against reselling recalled toys which is a loophole that some lawmakers are trying to close.

Some recalled toys are still on shelves in the U.S. A reporter in Chicago found a Polly Pocket LimoScene toy on the shelves of a Wal-Mart there, but when she tried to buy it, the cash register blocked the purchase. She found the toy still on the shelves in three visits later. Wal-Mart says the cash register is a backup to make sure recalled toys are not sold.

After Mattel recalled toys this fall, retailers shipped all of the affected products back to the toy maker. Then, Mattel determined which toys were manufactured during the dates covered in the recall and isolated them. Mattel put stickers with new bar codes and product numbers on the other toys and sent them back to stores.

Shoppers today can buy Mattel products and peel stickers off them to see the product codes of recalled toys. Mattel claims the toys with the stickers are safe and not affected by the recalls.

Reference:

"Not all recalled toys off shelves," New York Times, Louise Story, December 2007.