“All that glitters is not gold …
Gilded tombs do worms enfold”
— William Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice
In the run-up to Valentine’s Day, I was struck by how many hearts were depicted in the shiny little spangles we call glitter.
Whether signaling love in a flower arrangement, jazzing up a little girl’s barrette, or saying “I love you” in a big bow, glitter was the go-to embellishment of the day. Its appeal was not lost on commercial card makers, gift shop owners, and, above all, hobbyists, none of whom could get enough.
In the interests of full disclosure, I must confess that I, as a hobbyist (or “maker” as we are now called thanks to title inflation) am also a glitter junkie.
I give full rein to my cheesy side by embellishing many of the whimsical objects I create with those teeny colored bits of plastic: silver, gold, green, white, snow-flake shaped, stone-like, mini-pearls. You name ’em, I glue ’em.
Never mind that it’s impossible to get the inevitable spillage out of rugs, hair, clothing, work surfaces or furniture. In hopes of kicking it up a notch, I still use glitter.
Or, in my case, probably overuse it. Thanks to glitter, I turned plain brown leather boots into a dazzling silver and violet concoction right out of Midnight Cowboy. I decorated purple stilettos to such a fare-thee-well that even Lady Gaga would say they were over the top.
And I made an homage to The Wizard of Oz, complete with Toto and Dorothy, she resplendent in her twinkly red slippers. (Oh, come on, would anyone even remember those iconic shoes if not for their glitter?)
Today, many more items than decorations, greeting cards and novelty baseball caps are getting the glitter treatment. In various forms, it can now be found in a lot of makeup. Once reserved for Halloween or disco date night, glittery bits are now accepted as part of daytime streetwear.
Although the Food & Drug Administration is closing in on the manufacturers of these environmentally hazardous beautifications, cosmetic shelves are full of glitter-infused eye shadow, foundation and lip gloss. And they’re selling well.
How misguided we all are! With a little research I found out that glitter is to the environment what smoking is to the lungs: deadly.
These seemingly harmless bits of glitz and glamor are too small to be caught by any filter, so they slip through into the sea, endangering fish; into the soil, endangering wildlife; and into the air, endangering us.
The conclusion is obvious: We have to “Just Say No” to glitter in any of its forms. And if we already own the stuff, we have to carefully dispose of it in the brown trash bin.
Nothing, I repeat nothing, with glitter on it can be recycled. As this realization sinks in, I look bleakly around my craft studio in all its sparkly glory. I realize with a sinking heart that I’m going to have to create appealing objects the old-fashioned way, a way that requires actual talent, not cover-up.
I don’t know if I’m up to it. Nevertheless, I dutifully swipe all my vials of colored glitter into a paper bag and carefully place it with the rest of the outgoing garbage.
When my grandchildren receive their glitz-less presents in the future, I hope they understand I’m trying to heal the planet for them. Everything else is fool’s gold.
— Santa Barbara author Barbara Greenleaf founded ECO Team to help repair the world, one paper bag at a time. For information, please email her at barbara@barbaragreenleaf.com. Click here for previous columns. The opinions expressed are her own.