Ethical Wood Toys

When you consider the number of brightly-coloured plastic toys that will be sold this Christmas, only to be forgotten and discarded in January, the impact on the environment doesn’t bear thinking about. But ethically-produced wooden toys are now available from a number of discerning retailers who place importance on sustainable materials and good working conditions in third-world countries.

There’s one funky little company called Boutiko http://www.boutiko.co.uk/ which has some really cute toys on the market this Christmas. Their unique selling point is 'beautiful gifts with an ethical twist'. Check out the A-Z elephant jigsaw above which retails at £16 on the website. They’ve used lots of child-friendly colours like jazzy reds, pinks, purples and greens in the paintwork, but all the toys are made from sustainable rubber wood and MDF – and all entirely by hand in Sri Lanka under fairtrade conditions.

The wood is sourced from exhausted rubber plantations which are replanted every decade or so, and the packing materials are PVC-free and made from waste materials from local suppliers. Children are not involved at any stage of the production of these toys, and they have been approved by the British Association of Fair Trade Shops.

Boutiko also sells loads of other ethical products. To find the toys from the Boutiko home page, click on 'little ones'.