Eco Friendly Toy Brands
We believe in sustainable and eco friendly products and business practices. Did you see that we shared how, as a small business we are eco-friendly every day in the last blog HERE.
Now it's time to highlight the amazing Eco Friendly toy brands that we stock, and share with you how they are helping to reduce waste.
As we started to make the list we soon realised this was going to be more than a few bullet points.
There are so many ways that a toy can be eco-friendly, from the design, the materials, the quality and the packaging, so let's check them out.
THE DESIGN.
The design of a toy is so important. Oh yes, good design means the toy looks beautiful, it's more than that though.
Badly designed toys aren't just those we want to hide away, the toys without design are the ones that will not keep the kids engaged for long. You know what we mean. 😫 The toys that they want, but then in 5 minutes they are bored because it has no real play value.
A toy that has numerous uses, that can grow as your child grows, that is the sort of toy that ensure you can buy less and play more.
REDUCE is the first in the way we can all be eco friendly. That's why we stock brands and toys that have different levels of play. Jigsaw puzzles that are also observation games, stacking games that are trucks.
Some of the brands that have designed toys and products that reduce waste are Replay with re-useable plates ad spoon, made from recycled milk bottles.
THE MATERIALS.
Natural materials are the best!
Wooden toys and felt toys, silicone too! Sustainably sourced, renewable resources that feel fabulous, smell amazing, and don't add plastic to our landfill.
The amazing, colourful range of Beach toys from Scrunch are made from silicone. This is a natural material that is biodegradable.
Most of the toys that we sell are wooden, so we wont be listing all of the Brands. We will highlight that some of the toys are certified as being from sustainable forests.
FSC is something we talk about a lot when we talk about our wooden toys. It is the mark of the Forest Stewardship Council International,xx a non-governmental organisation created in 1993.
It is a certification that the materials used for these toys come from responsibly managed, FSC-certified forests. Trees are harvested responsibly so there is no net loss of forest over time, ensuring we have forests for years to come. 🌳🌳
Big Jigs are increasing their range of toys made from FSC certified wood. Other Brands include BRIO, Fabrix wooden blocks, Janod and Le Toy Van wooden toys.
Recycled and reclaimed plastics.
Have you heard of Green Toys? Of course you have! These toys have been around since 2007, recycling used Milk bottles into fun bath and sand toys that last and last. They have saved over 130 Million milk bottles from going into landfill, and that number keeps growing every day!
Replay also recycle milk containers, into colourful, durable kids tableware. Use them and then throw them into the dishwasher! Pretty and hard wearing the perfect combination for toddler tough plates, Sippy cups and cutlery!
Bioplastic
Bioplastic is a plastic that is made from Sugar Cane, or other natural sources. These toys look like plastic but are made from natural materials.
The Eco range of chubbies from Viking toys is made from BioPlastic.
Dantoy specialise in a range of garages and sand toys toys that are made from Bioplastic.
Dantoy Dump Truck and Tractor, made from sugar cane and working hard.
Waste becomes Fun.
We love the way that some of our Brands use the waste that they create in the factory to create new toys! It's amazing.
Plantoys combine the wood saved during the production of some of their toys with a non toxic paste to mould it into other toys in their range. They call it PlanWood. Ensuring their waste is reduced while keeping their toys durable.
Dantoy uses the waste from production as material for their Green Bean toys, and one step further, they use Marine waste, such as fishing nets, to create their marine range, which are a beautiful blue colour.
THE QUALITY
We are not going to spend a lot of time explaining that a toy that breaks is not eco-friendly. We all know that quality is important. ❤️
THE PACKAGING
It's a beautiful, natural, eco friendly toy, and it's wrapped in plastic. Urgh.
We are happy to say that this is no longer the standard.
Many brands like Grapat have always used cardboard boxes and string (not even tape) to ensure their beautiful products are well sustainable as they can be.
Australian business Papoose toys have recently updated all the packaging of their beautiful wood and felt toys to use environmentally friendly options.
Tiger Tribe are also reducing the plastics included in the packaging of their products.
THE THINGS YOU CAN'T SEE!
The packaging is the pretty outside of the products, what about the stuffing on the inside?
The stuffing in every Kaloo and Lilliputiens toy is made from 100% polyester fibres obtained from recycled bottles.
SHOPPING LOCAL
One last thing we want to note - Australian made! Reducing the need for shipping and so reducing the carbon footprint of products.
We love having Australian made brands in our shelves.
Beautiful products from natural materials all made locally from Two little Ducklings, 5 Little Bears and In-Wood.
It is a lot of information to fit into one Blog. We work hard to include this information on each of the individual Brand pages, so you know what you are buying.
I'm sure we have missed a few, we will continue to update this blog. So that you can make decisions based on the best information available.
- Helle.
Helle owns Lucas loves cars. Working with toys since 2012, she has played with toys for a long time and is very picky about which toys make the list. Like a spoilt child, she will have a tantrum if the toy doesn't work and will play for hours if she finds it engaging and fun. Or until someone tells her it's time for lunch.
