2 minute read
Jiminy Toys
JIMINY ECO TOYS
Playfully Sustainable
Jiminy Eco Toys don’t have a sustainability project, per se—the whole business is the project
Jiminy Eco Toys is an award-winning Irish social enterprise retailing and wholesaling over 650 climate-neutral, minimalwaste toys, made in Europe from plants or recycled materials. “We didn’t have a sustainability project to submit to these awards,” says Sharon Keilthy, founder of Jiminy Eco Toys. “Our entire business is the project— Jiminy exists to inspire a playfully sustainable world, not for any other reason.”
The inspiration for Jiminy hit Keilthy in 2018: “I went looking for a fourth birthday gift for my daughter. I wanted something sustainable, locally-made and plastic-free, but I came away empty-handed.”
Looking into it further she later learned the shocking figures and statistics which made it clear why it had been so difficult to source the type of sustainable toy she had been hoping to buy. “Toys is the most plastic-intensive industry in the world, with 90 per cent made from petroleum, releasing so much CO2 we’d have to plant 1 billion trees to absorb it.”
Keilthy felt strongly that there was a market for something better for the planet and better for children. “People want the kids in their lives to be happy, healthy, and safe. They don’t want to undermine that with the toys they buy for them! They want products with a positive impact on the planet and those kids’ futures...but how can they choose such products, if they’re not on the toystore shelf?”
She set up Jiminy to make it easy for parents to choose sustainable toys that they can feel great about buying for their children. Keilthy is now one of the leading experts in the world on sustainability in toys; she is a faculty member on the world’s only toy design degree at the prestigious Otis College Los Angeles, has started a global toy sustainability learning community for toy professionals, and sits on the American Toy Association Sustainability Committee.
CLIMATE KIND Jiminy now stocks over 750 eco toys and books, for all ages from babies through teens, selling to the public on the jiminy. ie website and selling wholesale to about 40 retailers.
While the first thing that springs to mind when you think of eco-toys is wooden toys, only 25 per cent of Jiminy toys are wooden. A sustainable toy is first and foremost kind to our climate, being made locally from plants or recycled materials. Secondly, it minimises waste, being packed
plastic- free. But it is not necessarily the stereotypical expensive, hand-carved wooden toy—it can also be cardboard, paper, bioplastic, or recycled plastic. The range available includes everything from hammocks to board games, bioplastic frisbees to biodegradable nail polish.
Keilthy ‘s vision is that one day “eco” will be the norm for toys, and and Jiminy exists to make that happen by supporting innovative makers, and showing other toy retailers (and the public) that it is possible to stock an entire toy shop without resorting to petro-plastic toys.
