Green Toys Inc. Co-Founders Robert von Goeben and Laurie Hyman show cookware and dinning set with Stevanne Auerbach, Ph.D./Dr. Toy. Photo provided by Stevanne Auerbach, Ph.D./Dr. ToySAN FRANCISCO - The second annual international Dr. Toy Green Toy Company Award has been presented to Green Toys Inc. in recognition for the company’s efforts in environmental conservation in all aspects of its operations. The award was presented by Stevanne Auerbach, Ph.D./Dr. Toy and The Institute for Childhood Resources.

The award was presented at Greens Restaurant in San Francisco, an established and well-respected vegetarian eatery.

Remarking on the criteria for the award, Dr. Auerbach said, “We are always looking for the most innovative ways a company can produce and design new products. The designs must provide children with the opportunity for stimulating creative play that also promotes communication.”

Another consideration is that the products provide the children with the opportunity for open-ended-play. Also of value are organic materials and the use of color.”

Green Toys, founded in 2007, currently provides a line of four product, which encompasses the following:

• A 17-piece tea set.
• A 27-piece cookware and dinning set.
• A sand bucket play set.
• An indoor gardening kit, with real seeds and soil included.

An entirely new line of toys will be added to the company’s products next year, with the official announced scheduled to come out in January 2009, according to Robert von Goeben, president of Green Toys.

The construction of the toys, made of recycled plastic, was described by Mr. von Goeben, who said, “We use recycled milk containers as the main ingredient in creating our toys. Literally, the milk jugs are ground up into flakes, sanitized, melted down and re-pelletized into new usable plastic that can be used in manufacturing.”

The toys are also designed without any external coatings, eliminating the fear of lead paint, according to the company’s information. Mr. von Goeben, elaborated during our interview, saying that, “The colorant is 100 percent FDA-approved. It’s from organic materials. The way the colorant is made is from a combination of vegetable dyes and mineral dyes, such as talc and things like that.” He could go no further into the chemical process, stating that “the way colorant is made is a trade secret among almost all companies.”

Mr. von Goeben, though added one further elaboration regarding the mixing of the materials, saying, “It is literally color pellets that are put in with plastic pellets that are melted together and mixed in to make the materials for the toys.”

Beyond the materials used for the toy construction, the Dr. Toy award also took into consideration the toys’ packaging, as well as the geographic manufacturing and transporting of the products.

All Green Toys products are packaged in recycled corrugated boxes with no plastics, cellophane or twist-ties, and are 100 percent recyclable, according to the company’s information.

With regards to the company’s supply chain, Mr. von Goeben, added during our interview that, “Everything that we do is based in California, specifically in the San Francisco Bay Area. All our factories, vendors and our warehousing is very close to each other, which is something that we worked very hard for and we are very proud of because it’s very environmentally friendly. Our supply chain is very, very small. We do subcontract the manufacturing, but all the subcontracted manufacturing that we use is all in San Francisco Bay Area.”

On the production point, Dr. Auerbach, exclaimed, “They kept the production in Northern California. This is a dream come true. Too much has been lost in the United States. It’s time to bring development back to the roots.”