Toys that don’t cost the earth.

Whether a child outgrows, becomes bored, or simply has too many, toys are often left unused. Did you know that of the 220 million toys purchased in Australia each year, 51% are thrown out within 12 months? The power of sharing through our toy library enables more play, and less landfill. It is magical to know that just one single toy can provide joy to so many families.

There is a lot to consider when purchasing a new toy for our toy library collection. So that many families can enjoy the toys for years to come, we keep safety, quality, durability and play-value top of mind when selecting toys.

Often the first thing which springs to mind when you think of sustainability and toys is the material used to make them. While it is just part of the puzzle, we are purposeful in including sustainably-sourced new toys into our collection.

We love this take on a quote by Carl Elefante, “the most sustainable toy is that one that already exists”. By accepting good quality donations into our toy collection, not only are we are keeping toys out of landfill for many years to come, but we are providing an alternative to buying new toys.

You may be surprised to learn that the Brisbane South Toy Library has a dedicated (volunteer) toy maintenance team. Operating from our on-site workshop, you’ll find them fixing toys, swapping in spare parts and ensuring the collection is in excellent working order.

As sustainability is important to our toy library, we consider a toy’s end-of-life from the very beginning of their life-cycle. Once a toy cannot be renewed, re-homed or re-purposed (eg for spare parts), it is passed on to toy recycling programs.