By Laure Latham
How local can you get shopping for green toys? Green toys may not be San Francisco’s number one 
industry but there are some pretty amazing green thinkers around who’ve come up with smart solutions to create unique toys that are gentle on the environment.
“Many parents want healthy products for their children,” says Stevanne Auerbach, also known as Dr. Toy, a Bay Area specialist on plays, toys and products for children. Dr. Toy publishes a yearly list of the best green products of the year, taking into account green characteristics of the products as well as how the company practices being green. For her, Bay Area toy makers include very green-conscious creative people with cross-cultural references.
Most of the time, parents will look at the green characteristics of toys and not wonder where they are made. This list, broken down by age range, will help you support local businesses as well as the environment.
Newborn to Toddler
“Young children love organic lovie blankets with a head on them,” says Suzanne Price, the owner of Sprout on Union Street, a children’s store with a focus on health. A mix between stuffed animals and blankets, these “toys” appeal to little children because they are soft and easy to teeth on.
Yellow Label, a Waldorf-inspired toy and clothes line started by a former Noe Valley mother, makes cuddle dolls and blanket dolls that are just perfect for that purpose. You can find them at Global Exchange on 24th Street. “Our cotton knit toys are made with oeko-tex certified yarn and dyed with azo-free/low impact dyes,” says Hillary Sciarillo, co-founder of Yellow Label, adding that a lot of their customers are young, savvy parents who want the look and feel of handmade products, but don't really have the time to pick up a set of knitting needles for 20 hours.
Knit rattles shaped as dragonflies, toadstools or ice-cream cones are also part of Yellow Label’s line of knit toys and make for great baby shower gifts.
Toddler to Preschool
“At the end of his second year,” writes Dr. Toy in her book Smart Play Smart Toys, “a child pays more attention to the function of his toys. His imagination and attempts at make believe have become significant in his play.”
Toys created by Green Toys are the perfect pretend-play toys for this age group. They range from trucks to tool boxes, tea sets to gardening sets, and serve a green purpose too. Green Toys is an award-winning company that makes toys out of recycled milk containers. Not only are their toys manufactured locally and in an eco-friendly manner, but some, like the Recycling Truck and the gardening set, also promote green thinking for young minds. These toys are now distributed worldwide but locally you will find them at hardware stores, children’s stores, and children’s museums. “The trucks and tea set of Green Toys are really popular,” confirms Lauren of Peek-a-Boutique in Noe Valley.
To foster imaginative play, get some eco-dough, a special play-dough made by Eco-Kids, a mom-owned business based in Mt Washington in Southern California. It’s 100% organic, it’s handmade and the best part is your kids can eat it and be fine. If it dries out overnight, just add a few drops of olive oil, mix and it’s like new! Plus, if your children have allergies, the eco-dough comes in gluten-free, soy-free, and dairy-free eco-dough. You can find eco-dough in San Francisco at Sprout.
Preschool to School
These children can concentrate on more sophisticated activities and play some quiet games. To satisfy their ever-growing curiosity, head to The Ark toy stores in Noe Valley or Laurel Heights and look around.
You will find, amongst other treasures, a few local toy makers including Miss Teapot. Miss Teapot - Cheryl Smith in real life – is a crafty mother who lives in Santa Rosa and makes whimsical artifacts for dress-up and play exclusively for The Ark store. A nature lover, Miss Teapot started making flower crowns for her daughter’s four-year-old birthday party. She now makes all her items by hand, a different collection for each of the four seasons, and delivers them directly to the stores.
Her productions include fairy and flower crowns as well as other items inspired by outdoor play. Sono-Ma, a local mom blogger, wrote the full story of this mother-daughter adventure.
The Ark also carries a wonderful company that has been honored for its creativity and commitment to the environment, Blue Orange Games. Blue Orange makes wooden strategy games that challenge children’s developing skills and critical thinking. For each tree used to make their games, the company plants two trees. They are also one of the very few toy companies where you can purchase replacement parts for the missing piece that disappeared during your last vacation.
ChickyBoom, one of their skills games, involves a potential risky balancing act of wooden chickens, hay bales and wagon wheels. Stack them all up on a wooden perch and then start removing them one by one. Since all elements have different weights and point values, the players must arbitrate between potentially high points and a toppling chain of events!
In Gobblet Gobblers, strategy and speed must act hand in hand to prevent your adversaries’ Gobblers to gobble up your own Gobblers. Through this quick thinking game, you can keep the entire family busy an entire afternoon.
For All Ages
Last but not least, Pottery Barn Kids is a local company that offers a broad range of high-quality and sustainable products including everything from organic bedding and FSC-Certified furniture to an 
assortment of eco-friendly toys. The environmental commitment is pretty high in the company’s culture.
Examples of their “outside the box” thinking include the Anywhere Chair and their wooden vehicles. Anywhere Chairs are soft lightweight chairs filled with a "hybrid" foam made at 30 percent from sustainable soy-based foam. Parents can choose from several designs and colors to satisfy their children’s tastes. The company’s Wooden Vehicles are timeless classic wooden toys on wheels, made from sustainable rubberwood and painted with natural, water-based dyes.
Green Local Toys; It’s Possible
Few of us realize the potential of San Francisco as a green toy destination and yet, companies and artisans are appearing left and right to create unique products that make children happy while keeping the safety of our planet in mind. Now, that’s worth going shopping for.
About Laure Latham:
Freelance writer Laure Latham is a
San Francisco Green Parenting Examiner
and writes in the Bay Area for
SFKids.org
, the Golden Gate Mothers Group’s Newsletter and
Green Moms
. For more on Laure, visit her
Frog Mom blog
. She lives in the Bay Area with her husband and their two daughters.