about all the toys. We’re a fairly green family. Except that my husband drives an hour to and from work and works for a water-bottling company. You can bet we recycle those bottles, but still.

We compost, we recycle everything, we use reusable bags instead of plastic bags - except to hold cat poop, we buy biodegradable (read “even more expensive”) diapers.

But the packaging on these toys we’re buying our kid are undoing all the good. Two layers of hard plastic surrounded by tons of cardboard, paper instructions, a box around the cardboard and plastic, steel ties (well, maybe not steel, but ridiculously hard to cut) around each toy that has to be sawed off with a chainsaw…I now make sure I have my camping knife with me when we go to Target. I also keep a box cutter in the car.

Crazy? If you think so, perhaps you’ve never had to open a Thomas the Train package.

I think the Europeans have the right idea. Because there are limits on the amount of trash you produce (you have to pay more if you need a bigger receptacle), stores will take all the packaging for you.

But really, if there weren’t so many thieves in this country, the packaging wouldn’t be so extreme.