Ecologically Sound Toys

In many ways our media saturated digital culture drives me mad. Gone are the days when you could take a drive and quietly spend an afternoon without the cell phone ringing and the blackberry e-mailing. Gone are the days when people made "friends" looking at each other in the eye, rather then "friending" and "being friended" on line. Ok...c'est la vie- we must go with the flow (Luddite though I am)

At the same time, I am eternally grateful to be alive at a time, when medicine and science are so advanced that an ever growing percentage of people and animals in my life are ALIVE and healthy because we live when we do...breathtaking really.

That said- our time also has given us (more recently) a wonderful number of choices as consumers...and ever increasingly "green" ecologically sound choices. This is awesome.

For parents- there have been many scares in recent years about products made with dangerous chemicals. There have been a number of recalls making everyone feel vulnerable and suspicious...for good reason. The good news is that there are now so many wonderful and safe choices choices we can make when finding the right toys for our little ones.

In our wanderings we have found some really nice places to look for ecologically responsible toys.

For wonderful wood toys, we suggest having a look at North Star Toys:
http://www.northstartoys.com/collections/all-collections/

Green Toys has a terrific selection of recycled material toys:
http://www.greentoys.com/

And Tree Hollow Toys has a great mixture of all types of responsible and safe toys.
http://www.treehollowtoys.com/

We have been browsing and buying- but you need to make the decisions for yourself...we just want to share our excitement about the possibilities we are finding in this brave-new-world- options that simply were not there, or very remote just a few years ago.

As you go forward and look around..we found the following really useful checklist courtesy of: http://www.toxinfreetoys.com/general/eco-friendly-fun-4-ways-to-identify-green-kids-toys/

1) What Materials are the toys made of?
Identifying what is classified as a ‘green toy’ starts with the materials used to create that toy. Choose toys which are made with natural or easily recyclable materials. Choose toys made with:

Leather
Wood
Organic cotton
Metal (aluminum is easily recycled)
Fabric
Avoid toys made with plastic as plastic is a non biodegradable oil based product.


2) What country are the toys made in?
Surprisingly the location where the toy is manufactured has a large impact on its ‘greenness’ . Most toys these days are produced in China and as a result incur an enormous environmental ‘carbon footprint’ due to the distances travelled. A Toys ‘Carbon Footprint’ increases every mile that toy has to be transported.

3) Will this toy break in the first 10 minutes?
Well made toys are inherently green because they can be passed down and are not designed to be used for a week before they break. Select toys that are robust, made with quality materials and designed to stand the test of time.

4) Can the toy eventually be recycled?
All toys will eventually find their way to the landfill unless their components can be recycled. Some toys are manufactured in a way that allows for their parts to be easily disassembled.

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