At best, toys make children’s hearts beat faster – but are they also produced fairly? A new seal is intended to bring more light into the darkness. But it cannot answer all questions.
A seal for fairly produced toys is intended to give consumers more orientation as to the conditions under which the products were manufactured. The Fair Toys Organization awarded the seal for the first time in Nuremberg. According to them, this is unique in the toy industry because it focuses on the social and ecological responsibility of manufacturers in their supply chains.
Civil society organizations, churches, municipalities, the Association of the German Toy Industry and toy companies founded the Fair Toys Organization (FTO) in Nuremberg in the summer of 2020. Since then, two member companies, the plush toy manufacturer Heunec from Franconia and the construction toy manufacturer Plasticant Mobilo from the Black Forest, have had themselves inspected. More are to follow, said Maik Pflaum from the FTO board.
The FTO seal does not say whether everything is going 100 percent well
Seals for fair trade products such as clothing and chocolate have been around for a long time. According to Pflaum, these are currently missing in the toy industry. There are certification systems such as the Ethical Toy Program and Amfori BSCI, but they focus on inspecting toy factories. However, these often only documented known grievances and did not take into account the purchasing practices of the clients. In addition, they are often initiated by industry. Controls and audits make sense, but only in a complementary manner, according to Pflaum.
The FTO seal does not mean that everything is going 100 percent well for the company, said Pflaum. “It also doesn’t say that the entire supply chain is clean.” This is not possible with such long supply chains and is therefore not credible. “The seal says that the company does everything possible to ensure that labor and human rights are observed.”
According to the FTO, companies only receive the seal for around one year. They then have to be checked again.
Source: Stern
