Monday, April 19, 2010
San Francisco's Green Toys makes all its toddler tea sets, building blocks and toy trucks out of plastic recycled from milk jugs. It uses minimal packaging - just simple cardboard with no twist ties, shrink wrap or plastic bubbles.
But its biggest "green" feature lies behind the scenes.
Unlike most toymakers, the small firm carries out all its operations domestically.
"Everything we do from recycling through manufacturing, assembly and warehousing is in California, 99 percent in the Bay Area," said co-founder and President Robert von Goeben.
It's "reverse globalization." Keeping the supply chain local is part of a new trend called onshoring, a push back against the offshoring and outsourcing that has sent jobs and manufacturing overseas, and gobbled up fossil fuels.