Ethical & Sustainable Toys
As an eco-friendly adult you do all you can to ensure your green credentials are up to date – recycling, energy-saving light bulbs, fairtrade coffee and chocolate etc. But how about sustainable toys for the children in your life? How ethical are the toys you give to the kids? And would an ethical toy make it onto a child’s wish list in the first place? In this article we’ll discuss ethical toys and find out what makes a toy ‘green’.
The ethical toy debate
The toy industry, which is said to worth around £8 billion, has long been criticised for its lack of environmental awareness. However, that hasn’t stopped adults from splashing the cash. By the time the average British child reaches the age of 16, they will have owned around £11,000 worth of toys. It’s impossible for all those toys to have been made from sustainable materials or be ethically sound, so what’s being done to improve the situation?
The answer has, until recently, been very little. The mass market for cut-price toys lends itself to huge industrialisation leading to outsourcing and then questionable labour rights for the workforce who produce the products. Then there’s the materials used in manufacture.