Why You Should Celebrate Earth Day!
Happy Earth Day! Today's the big day for celebrating Mother Earth. The theme for Earth Day 2021 is Restore Our Earth. So what exactly is it, and why should you take part?
What Is Earth Day?
Every year on April 22nd, people from around the world come together to celebrate Earth Day. The first-ever Earth Day was celebrated way back in 1970 and it only became a globalised celebration in 1990. Today, Earth Day is celebrated by more than 1 billion people every year!
Why Is Earth Day Important?
Earth Day is important as it aims to raise awareness of the impact of climate change and global warming in front of a huge worldwide audience. Earth Day inspires people to act on protecting, conserving, and caring for the environment. With 2020 bringing bushfires, flash floods, and the global COVID-19 pandemic, people have shifted how they live and behave which makes Earth Day even more important.
What Are Bigjigs Toys Doing To Be More Sustainable?
Bigjigs Toys have always taken great care to ensure our products are responsibly and ethically sourced. Our Director, Liz, takes regular trips to the factories where our toys are made to make sure the minimum ethical and sustainable standards are being upheld.
Sustainable Toys
Bigjigs Toys have made some massive changes in recent years. Over 80% of the Bigjigs Toys range comes in packaging that's made from 90% recycled materials and is printed with soy inks. We're actively avoiding using unnecessary plastic where possible.
When choosing wood for our products, we carefully assess the quality and durability to guarantee many years of play. We are proud to stock two amazing ranges of eco-friendly toys: 100% FSC Certified Toys and Green Toys.
100% FSC® Certified Toys
Our FSC® Certified Toys come from responsibly sourced wood. The FSC® (Forest Stewardship Council) advocates responsible forestry and has a worldwide forest certification system. This allows business and consumers to know that their wood has come from ethically managed forests - simply lookout for the "tick tree" FSC logo.
For every tree that's cut down, a new one is planted or allowed to regenerate naturally. You can read more about our sustainable FSC® toys here.
Green Toys
Made in California, USA, Green Toys are made from 100% recycled plastic milk jugs! Impressive, right! The reason for this is that this type of plastic is food-safe and contains no BPA, PVC or Phthalates. It's also a single material, which means that it's easier for parents to recycle toys their children have outgrown and it also prevents it from going to landfill. Find out how you can have Good Green Toys Fun here!
Did you know that at the time of writing, Green Toys have recycled 105,829,111 milk jugs? Incredible!
Environmentally-Friendly Office
At our HQ in Folkestone, Kent, we have done a lot to reduce our use of electricity. All our staff computers have power-saving features; we reuse boxes and buy recycled cardboard to send our orders out in (zero polythene); there's LED lighting in all our warehouse, office & showroom areas; all of our electricity is produced via the 216 solar panels on our roof.
In fact, we tend to harvest more energy than we use so the additional energy is returned to the National Grid! You can read more about our commitment to environmental responsibility and sustainability here.
What are you doing to celebrate Earth Day and be more sustainable? Let us know in the comments! Or join in on the conversation with us on our socials!