Discussion about sustainable toys

1. Fabricated Under Nature
Toys
A proposal to change the way we play
Presented by: Gautam Muralidharan
In support of Introduction to Sustainable Design @MCAD
Instructor: Joshua Foss

2. 2
What is this presentation
about?
 About Toys! – The past, present and a discussion
about what the future can look like
 The challenge with our current setup of how we
make, use and discard toys
 One interesting solution to promote sustainability
 Why is this an option worth considering?
 Recap of key messages

3. 3
A brief history
 Toys have been around for thousands of years (3000-1500
BC).
 Ancient toys were made from materials found in nature. toys
were often made by the parents or families of the children
who used them or by the children themselves
 Modern toys are often made from synthetic materials
including plastics and are often mass-produced and sold in
stores, often putting them out of the reach of poorer
communities.

4. 4
Is there a problem?
 Toys in developed countries often get discarded
without options to reduce, recycle or reuse,
negatively impacting our planet
 Impoverished families and communities with
children who share the same love and joy of
wanting to play but are deprived of this joy
because of the extensive commercialization of
toys.
Profits > Planet + People

5. 5
Sustainable Toys
 Toys made from organic materials are safer for children and
could eliminate or reduce significant testing costs
 1-billion market or as much as 5 percent of toy sales in the
next five years, according to environmental research firm
Earthsense
 U.S. Toy fair held in NYC earlier this year, featured a green
pavilion to showcase environmentally-friendly toys for the first
time, which indicates that the industry may be ready to make
a big splash in the environmentally-friendly toy market.

6. 6
Hmm.. So what’s new about your
idea?!
 Affordable toys that are easy to make, use and dispose
 Define basic blue prints of very simple toys with assembly
instructions
 Publish for the world to use – informationalize and localize
the manufacturing of these toys
 Bring interested minds together to add to the library of
blueprints that can be given away for free
 Transmaterialize over time once library of blue prints grows
 Reduce, recycle, reuse!

7. 7
For example…..
 A simple car toy blueprint: 4 wheels, two axles and a body.
 Right shows a very simple implementation of the blueprint
using a milk carton for the body of the car, wheels cut out
from a corrugated box and axles are paper straws.
 Total time to manufacture: 10 minutes.
 Cost to manufacture ~$0 (consists primarily of reused and
repurposed materials).
 Constituent materials are all recyclable and design is
completely informationalized and localized

8. 8
Lab Tested

9. 9
Closing Thoughts
 Earthsense has predicted that green toys will account for
about $1 billion, or five percent, of all U.S. toy sales in the
next five years. There are profits to be made. Save the planet
in the process.
 Not only about eco-friendly, sustainable woods and toxin-free
plastics and paints, or reusing milk cartons and soda bottle
caps, it’s about the way children actually play with the toys.
 It is about enabling an unbridled joyful playing experience for
everyone no matter who, where or what they are

10. 10
Credits and References
1. Wikipedia
2. http://copingwithfrugality.com
3. http://www.greentoys.com/
4. http://news.thomasnet.com/green_clean
5. http://www.toysscrap.com
6. http://www.environmentalleader.com/
7. http://www.accountability-central.com/hot-topics/toy-safety/where-are-your-kids-toys-made/
8. http://agpa.uakron.edu/p16/lesson.php?id=how_toys_are_made&pg=materials
9. http://mg.co.za/article/2009-01-22-toys-for-africa
10. http://www.inhabitots.com/