Can Wooden Toys Save The Planet

You'd have to live in a cave not to be aware of the environmental issues we are all facing. Global warming is now universally acknowledged as the biggest threat to mankind ever seen and will have devastating consequences for millions of people. It's therefore important we all do our bit to help reduce it's impact and governments are keen to encourage people to reduce their carbon footprint but how can traditional children's toys help in the fight? We all know that trees are important for the Earth's eco system using up CO2 and releasing oxygen into the atmosphere. This helps to reduce carbon in the environment and helps to offset everybody's 'carbon footprint'.

This however is not the end of the story with two major flys in the environmental ointment.

1. Young, rapidly growing trees are generally the most efficient at absorbing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen. Because older trees do not grow as rapidly they do not use as much CO2 or produce as much oxygen.
2. When trees die and decay, or are burned they use up oxygen and in the process release all the carbon they have been storing back into the atmosphere.

So how do we get the benefits of forest ecosystems without the penalties? Simple! Instead of allowing trees to grow old and decay we need to harvest them at a reasonable age and replace them with a new CO2 hungry sapling. Secondly we have to ensure the wood does not decay or burned so we therefore have to turn the wood into something useful such as furniture or better still traditional wooden toys!

So by buying a wooden toy not only are you helping to develop your child's motor, creative, linguistic and problem solving skills you are also doing your bit to save the planet!

This does come with some major caveats however.

1. It is important to ensure that the children's toy has been sourced from sustainable or replenishable forests. This is not always the case when buying Chinese made toys so it's important to check the packaging or ask for advice.

2. It'd no good throwing the toy away once your child has outgrown it as the toy is likely to end up decaying in a landfill and releasing it's carbon back into the environment. Most traditional toys have a lifespan that is much longer than it's plastic counterparts and toys such as a wooden pirate ship never go out of fashion so why not donate the toy to a local playgroup, nursery, doctors surgery or charity shop.

3. This is not a cure all for our environmental woes, it will offer short term benefits and should be seen as a very small piece of a much larger environmental jigsaw (a wooden jigsaw!)

So why not visit our traditional toy shop and invest in your child's future in more ways than one!