Sustainable Ethical Toys 2023

Crawcraft Beasties are made in Ireland using 100% natural fibre yarns, and as much non-synthetic felts, fabrics and threads as possible.

UK based Sense Organics, another organic clothing brand, also offer a small range of vegan organic and non-toxi soft toys with cotton filling.

Wooly Organic use 100% organic cotton from Turkey and 100% corn fibre filling from Italy to make soft toys in Latvia. They also use only trusted European manufacturers in order to stay as local as possible from thread to packaging. Their packaging is also mostly card.

My Wondercube is a toy designed by a mum in the UK, made from organic cotton and manufactured in a Fairtrade factory in India. The toy meets European toy safety requirements (EN71) and carries the CE marking of quality assurance. The company use recycled packaging wherever they can.

German company Kathe Kruse make a range of organic soft toys, some with organic filling.

Nanchen in Germany make soft dolls from organic materials. You can buy their dolls from UK based online retailers Conscious Craft, MamaOwl and myriad natural toys

Pebble Child is a UK based company that works with poor women’s group in Bangladesh to make fair trade toys from cotton, filled with polyester. According to the companies website Pebble have been working in partnership with the USAID’s CREL project and Winrock to redirect poor women away from depleting natural resources for their livelihoods and towards knitting.

From Babies with Love make wooden toys from sustainable sourced wood and soft toys from organic cotton and upcycled material filling. Every penny of profit they make goes to orphaned and abandoned children around the world.

The world famous bear brand Steiff have a range of teddies made with organic cotton filled with organic cotton & recycled polyester.

German company Sigid have a range of soft toys made with certified organic cotton filled with organic lambswool. They can be bought in Ireland from the company Beoverde.ie

Trixie Baby in the Belgium offer a range of soft toys made with certified organic cotton filled with recycled polyester. They also sell natural rubber toys. They can be bought in Ireland from the company Beoverde.ie

Wooden Toys

Alphabet Jigsaws has been creating original handcrafted wooden jigsaw puzzles from sustainably sourced wood, painted by hand using non-toxic acrylic paints since 1997. The puzzles are designed in the West of Ireland, and produced in a rural part of Sri Lanka by the same family for nearly twenty years. The factory was inspected and certified under the Ethical Trade Initiative in 2007 and determined to be a fair and regulated environment.

Plan Toys (see first photo) are made from rubber trees that no longer produce latex. To keep the wood pure, no fertilizer is added to the soil three years prior to the trees being cut down and the wood is dried in a chemical-free kiln. Their toys are assembled using a certified E-Zero formaldehyde free glue in place of traditional toxic wood glue and painted with organic colours and dyes free of heavy metals. They also print on recycled paper using soy-based ink.

PlanToys is a carbon neutral company, which they achieved by planting trees, and using left-over wood from production in their biomass generator to produce electricity for the whole factory and surrounding villages. The company states that their toys fulfil or exceed the European (EN71) and American (ASTM) safety requirements. These toys are available from quite a few suppliers in Ireland.

Hape Toys is a US brand and is the world’s largest producer of wooden toys, mostly from bamboo with durable plastic parts. The company states that they minimise energy consumption, and packaging options as much as possible and that they’ve installed a water purification system that utilizes limited or no chemicals to allow them discharge clean water from the factory. The following are retailers of Hape Toys in Ireland;  Mimi Toys, Littledreamers.ie, Duffy’s Toyworld in Co Louth.

Grimms Toys in Germany make wooden toys from FSC certified European timber finished with harmless colours and oil. The fabric used on their dolls is are Oeko-Tex certified, i.e. free from toxic chemicals and some of their products are made in cooperation with people with disabilities. The company states that they try to keep packaging to an absolute minimum and that all of their products, including the colour and oil they use, meet the European standard for safety of toys (EN71) and the US standards.

Grapat Toys in Spain makes wooden toys from sustainably grown beech and birch. The dyes they use are water based and non-toxic, even if chewed! All the finishes are made with waxes and oils of vegetable origin and the cloth bags given with some toys are made from off-cuts from other manufacturers. The company also work with people with mental illness. They state that all of their materials comply with the safety regulations of the EN71-1-2-3 Toy and that the dyes comply with the European safety regulations of the Toy EN / 71-3: 2014 + A1: 2014 / 2013.

Ostheimer Toys in Germany are handcrafted from sustainable local timber finished with organic oil. The company works with people with disabilities in the community.

Lanka Kade is a UK company that made fairtrade toys in Sri Lanka. They state that they raw materials from sustainable resources where possible and find alternative uses for waste. They also use solar energy at their UK office.

Spielzeug Manufaktur is a family run German maker of handmade wooden and felt toys that are available to buy in the National History Museum in Dublin 2 and Birr Castle. The toys are made with non-toxic dyes that comply with the standard DIN EN 71. Their felt is locally sourced wool felt and their fabric toys are made from cotton.

UK based Tender Leaf Toys make toys from rubber trees at the end of their latex producing life, which other would have been burned. For every tree that is felled a new one is planted. The entire manufacturing process takes place in one 30 year old factory, Mentari, in Indonesia, which Tender Leaf Toys spend 6-8 weeks in a year. All their toys meet the safety standard EN71, ASTM F963 and AS/NZS ISO.

Ecological toys in the Czech Republic makes toys locally using sustainably harvest local timber. They sell only natural products that are 100% certified (FSC). The toys have some toxin-free, water based decoration but are mostly left natural. They are mailed in paper and card-based packaging.

Tikit is UK based and makes toys for kids ❤ years of age. Their wooden toys are made from FSC certified timber, or formaldehyde free plywood or MDF, painted with water-based paint. They reuse their shipping pallets, use recycled cardboard boxes and power their factory with renewable energy, some of which comes from their own solar panels.

Plastic Toys

Green Toys are made in the USA from recycled plastic milk jugs, which they state have confirmed to international standards for BPA and phthalates. Their packaging is kept to a minimum, fully recyclable (or recycled) and their boxes are printed with soy ink. They only thing i have reservations on is the potential for cross contamination. I know the company state that they’re within international standards, but what does that mean! You can buy these toys from quite a few suppliers in Ireland.

Bioblo straddles the wooden / plastic toy category by being 60% sawdust from sustainably-managed fir and spruce forests in Austria and Germany, 35% recycled high-quality plastic drinking cups from Germany (free from plasticisers, PVC, BPA, or other harmful elements) and 5% environmentally-friendly colours from Slovenia (both organic and inorganic but all free of heavy metals). They come in a cardboard box. They are available to buy from Jiminiy.ie

Sport

Bala Sport sell Fairtrade footballs made to the same standards as those approved by FIFA. The additional revenue generated through the Fairtrade scheme has gone towards free eye care and subsidised glasses, free diabetes checks, free school books and backpacks for workers’ children and free transport to work. It has also part funded larger scale projects such as water purification plants located just outside factory gates so that anyone in the community can take advantage of the free, safe drinking water on offer.

Toys for Older Kids

My kids lost total interest in wooden toys by the age of 6 children but this one might keep kids engaged for longer. I came across the US toy Keva Planks, on the blog of a home schooler in America. On the face of it they sound like the most boring toy ever but these wooden planks come with tonnes of guides on how to create amazing structures with it, so much so that a Keva community has emerged. Keva Planks are available from Cogs the Brain Shops in St Stephens Green SC, D2.

Tegu is a another brand of wooden blocks and plants but this time with the added feature of being magnetic. Made in Hondurus by an independent toy company from FSC certified sustainable hardwood as part of a Tegu reforestation programme, they are painted with non-toxic, water based lacquers and can be bought from the website Baipur.

Another wooden ‘toy’ but for older hands are these stunning wooden mechanical kits from Ugear. They’re made entirely from wood, with no glue or batteries required. I particularly love this mechanical box design because it will hopefully be used after being constructed and not languish in a corner as happens with most construction kits after completion.

I was very excited to hear about Planet Junko, a kit designed and made in the UK from recycled plastic that allows you to create from existing materials. You can buy via Cogs The Brain Shop in Ireland.

Marbushka in Hungary make beautifully designed board games with paper certified as being sustainably grown by FSC and PEFC organizations, and the cardboards in their games are made of 90% recycled paper. They also use natural paints to colour their wooden components and with the exception of printing and binding, the production of all Marbushka games are made by hand, meaning lower energy consumption. Their supply chain and retailers are all small independently owned or family-run businesses. They also do a stunning range of wooden headed dolls. You can buy their products from Jiminy.

Love, love, love this ‘Guess who’ inspired game of powerful women from history called Who’s She? by Playeress. The game is available in wood or cardboard, both of which are assembled by hand in Poland, Warsaw

Books

I’m a big fan of books as presents, but some kids, including my own, are not but so be warned. If you’re looking for some eco-conscious check out Penguin publisher’s article on 7 Eco Books for Young Readers. I also love this pop-up book by Usborne called How the World Works. The same author and illustrator have also written / drawn books on ‘How the Weather Works’ and ‘How we make Stuff’.

E-tailers in Ireland and Europe
If you can’t pick up toys from bricks and mortar shops (which is the more sustainable option) then check out these e-tailers of E-tailers of sustainable ethical toys in Ireland and Europe. They sell some of the brands listed above and are a good way to compare prices.

• Envirotoy (UK) sell some of the brands listed here for under 7s
• Good Things (UK) sell a range of eco toys
• The Early Teacher (UK) sell some of the brands listed here for under 7s
• Conscious Craft (UK) have a huge selection of wooden toys and soft toys from brands Osteimer, Grimm’s, Nanchen, Wooden Story, Tegu, Tomtect, Kapla, Plan Toys, Kenana Knitters and Corvus.
• Kidly in the UK sell toys for under 5s
• One Hundred Toys (UK) – this company sells toys that suit under 3’s
• Myriad Toys (UK) – this company has lots of toys for under 3’s and a few toys that would suit 7-9 age bracket
• Toby Tiger (UK) has a large range of wooden toys, some of which are organic for under 5’s
• Boobalou (UK) offer fairtrade wooden toys for under 5’s
• Baipur (UK) sells a huge range of fairtrade toys, organic toys and wooden toys for under 5’s
• Baba Me/ Fluff Heaven (UK) sell organic soft toys, wooden toys and recycled plastic toys for under 5s
• Mama Owl (UK) sell toys by Nanchen, Ostheimer, Grimms, Grapat and others.
• Oxfam (UK) have a website where you can buy branded second-hand toys that have been donated to them.
• The Ethical Market (UK) is a good place to search out handmade toys made in the UK
• Etsy (America) is another good place to search for handmade toys by country
• The Natural Store (UK) has small number of wooden and arts and craft toys for under 5’s
• Ethical Superstore (UK) has fairtrade toys, solar powered toys, wooden toys and recycled plastic toys for under 12’s
• Natural Collection (UK) has fairtrade toys, solar powered toys, wooden toys and recycled plastic toys for under 12’s