Granville Island Toy Company's expanding line of eco-friendly toys

Granville Island Toy's Joanna Mileos presents a selection of store's eco-friendly products.

Granville Island Toy's Joanna Mileos presents a selection of store's eco-friendly products.
Photograph by: Ian Lindsay, Vancouver Sun, Vancouver Sun

Eco-friendly toys are increasingly popping up in children's playrooms.

And material for toys that are not only battery-free but composed of recycled and reclaimed plastic and wood are being produced for a Colorado-based company here in Metro Vancouver.

"I think there's definitely a growing market for them," Joanna Mileos, owner of Granville Island Toy Company, said in an interview. "I've now got seven lines [of toys] that are eco-friendly. A couple of years ago, there were only two lines and they were made completely from wood."

Mileos said parents are not only buying toys that are environmentally friendly but are also concerned about the recalls of lead-based toys out of China.

Because of that, she said, eco-friendly toy options are increasing.

"We're starting to see it emerge. But there's not enough of a selection yet."

Mileos cited Granville Island Toy Company's expanding line of eco-friendly toys, including jump-ropes, toy trucks, toy tool sets, Frisbee-like "eco-saucers" made of recycled milk containers and plush toys made of such materials as organic cotton.

One of Granville Island Toy's more popular brand names is ., a Colorado-based eco-toy company that makes such "kid-powered" toys as eco-trucks, play sets and "buggy" characters.

The material in the company's Sprig Adventure Series for preschoolers -- called Sprigwood -- is produced by a Delta-based company, GER Envirotech, which manufactures biofibre composites by mixing waste wood fibre with recycled plastics.

The Sprigwood is then shipped to the Ontario-based company, Baytech Plastics, which manufactures the toys before shipment.

GER Envirotech produces not only the Sprigwood material for Sprig Toys, but also environmentally friendly products for applications in the construction, transport, automotive and toy industries.

"[We] make all kinds of things, anything that can be injection-moulded," GER Envirotech president and CEO Ed Trueman said in an interview. "The material we supply is 98-per-cent recycled.

"We provide the raw material and [Baytech] makes the toys."

Trueman said his company has been supplying Sprigwood for Sprig Toys for about a year and that things have worked out well.

He said Sprig Toys -- which is dedicated to "making the best toys the right way" -- wanted to differentiate itself from many of the other mainstream toy companies. "They wanted a non-toxic, unique and green product and they wanted to use reclaimed wood waste from the mills. And one thing that Sprig really wanted to capture was the aroma of the wood."

He said it took GER Envirotech about a year to develop the product and that Sprig Toys, which won the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award this year, now accounts for about eight per cent of his company's overall business. "We're proud to be their supplier."

Trueman said it was equally important to manufacture a material that was tough enough to withstand a lot of battering.

"They [Sprig toys] stand up to pre-schoolers and that's very important."

Sprig Toys' website (sprigtoys.com) also has links to other toy companies and stores that make and sell green products.

See the original article here:

http://www.vancouversun.com/Business/Metro+makes+contribution+friendly+toys+market/1533438/story.html