Posted by Lorna.Doone on 17. December 2009 02:09
If you still have little ones on your Christmas list and don't know what to get, here are a couple of great eco-friendly (and totally cool) suggestions.
So, I really do strive to live a reasonably green lifestyle. I take the bus when I can. I don't buy single-serving items when I can avoid it. I even compost. These are all little changes I was easily able to incorporate into my life. I'm so pleased to see how they've crept into my husband's thought processes, too. He came home the other night, all excited about these toys he had found to buy for our nieces and nephew for Christmas. I was a bit surprised that he had thought that far ahead and actually purchased toys all on his own, but I was both flabbergasted and proud when he showed me what they were.
For our daughter and oldest niece, he found these awesome tea sets from Green Toys. They are super cute and are made with recycled milk jugs. That's post-consumer waste, folks! From their website:
| "We use recycled milk containers as the main ingredient in creating our toys. Yes, the exact plastic milk jugs that you and your family drink from every day. When you finish your milk and toss the container in the recycling bin, these milk containers are collected at your curb by a local recycling company, who then sorts them from all the other types of plastic. Next, the milk containers are reprocessed into super clean fresh plastic. For you plastic geeks, the plastic material we use is called high-density polyethylene (or HDPE). This material is considered one of the safest, cleanest plastics around." |
The younger niece and nephew are each getting an "Eco Boombox" by Ecotronic. (Their website seems to be down.) Instead of using batteries, these toys work via toddler power. They wind the handle and are rewarded with lights and sounds. It even comes in very environmentally friendly packaging that reminds me of a cardboard egg crate. (For locals, they can be purchased at The White Elephant for about ten dollars less than the online retail price.)
I am so thrilled, not only that we are giving great eco-friendly toys to the kids we love most, but also that my "green" ways are rubbing off on my darling husband!