.jpg)
Green Toys, a San Francico-based toy company, recently made it in Dr. Toy's 2009 list of Best Green Products for its recycling truck, a green plastic truck made out of recycled milk bottles. This year, the company's recycling truck and tea set also received praise and awards from venues as diverse as Disney Family Fun magazine or the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association (ASTRA). For San Francisco parents looking for locally made good green fun, Green Toys might be just the place to start.
In the green toy niche that sees more newcomers every year, Green Toys doubles its toy-appeal by being local for Bay Area families. Here is how it works. Milk containers collected curbside in recycling bins in California are purchased by Green Toys. They are then reprocessed into super clean plastic before being made into toys. From start to finish, all the production takes place in the Bay Area. While the think tank is based in San Francisco, the toys are manufactured in San Leandro in the East Bay and packaged in San Carlos in the Peninsula.
When plastic bears an aura of suspicion on many parents' radar because of BPA and phthalates, these plastic toys are made of high density polyethilene (HDPE - #2 recycling symbol), one of the safest plastics around. If recycling centers accepted toys in their plastic recycling programs, they would even be recyclable in the plastic bin directly.
The toys' eco-friendliness extends to their packaging as it is made of recycled corrugated cardboard and contains no twist ties, cellophane, or plastics. In the recycling truck's case, the packaging even sports images of bottles, cans and paper that parents can cut out so their kids can load them into the truck's slots to wheel them away. It's never too early to learn Recycling 101.
To find Green Toys products, parents can use the store locator but given the popularity of these toys, it shouldn't be difficult to add them to Santa's list.
Green Toys will be announcing a new line of toys on January 2, 2010. Got milk?
Comments