AD If you have a toddler or preschooler there is a good chance you will be familiar with Blippi, CoComelon, Peppa Pig and the Teletubbies. Blippi has actually been around for 8 years and the others longer, but if you wanted to make a more eco friendly toy choice in the past it hasn’t been easy. The Eco Plush range from Character Toys is made from 100% recycled materials, but you would never know by looking at it.

Taking Blippi and JJ on an adventure

About The CoComelon and Blippi Eco Plush 

These 20cm tall plush are made from 100% recycled materials. Both the filling and the outer fabric are made from recycled polyester fibres which were once plastic bottles. The packaging is plastic free and is made from FSC Certified paper which is fully recyclable. The soft toys can be gently hand washed and are suitable for children 18 months and older.

As well as the items we received there is a different version of JJ in a romper suit, 2 My Little Pony plush, lots of different Peppa Pigs, Teletubbies (La La and Po) and Barney the purple dinosaur. Each one has a green leaf logo embroidered on them to show they are an eco-friendly choice. This can also help encourage a conversation with children about recycling eg by saying that the toy was made because people recycled plastic bottles instead of throwing them away.

Eco Plush collection is widely available online and in-store including from Smyths, The Entertainer, Toymaster, Very, Amazon, Morrisons, Tesco, Asda, The Range, Hamleys, JD Williams and more!

Eco Plush come in cardboard packaging from FSC approved sources

Cuddling his new best friends

The Eco Plush Soft Toys are made from 100% recycled material

The filling and fabric on Eco Plush toys are polyester made from recycled plastic bottles

Talking About Earth Day and Climate Change With Young Children

Earth Day takes place on 22nd April each year. It is celebrated world wide and dates back to 1970. This year the theme is Invest In Our Planet which is the idea that if we take action now we can make a big difference and still have a prosperous future. Earth Day is a useful prompt to make sure we are having important conversations about the future of our plant.

Understanding the harm we are causing our environment and climate is a big concept and can be a little frightening for children. While scare tactics can be used to try an encourage adults to change their behaviour children picking up on these will get very worried believing the world is going to end. As a child I remember getting scared of rain in case it was acid rain and it would melt me. It is still important to talk to children about climate change though, just in an age appropriate way. 

Having fun exploring

JJ from CoComelon is a popular character

Here Are Some Ways To Talk To Children About Climate Change

Explaining Limited Resources To Children 

Library analogy

If you visit the library with children they will understand that library books can be borrowed, but need to be returned in good condition so that other people can read the books too. If everybody threw the books away instead or left them at home the library would soon run out of books. Returning the books is a similar idea to recycling. 

Felt tip analogy

We can use felt tips to make a beautiful picture that we can enjoy and that is a nice thing to do, but if we use the felt tip a lot or we don’t take care of it and leave the lid off the felt tip will run out of ink and stop working. When the felt tip is all used up there are other options for pictures like paints, colouring pencils or crayons, but they aren’t quite the same and might not be as easy to buy. This is similar to fossil fuels which can be replaced by renewable energy sources.

Explaining The Impact of Climate Change To Children

Plant Experiment

You can teach children from a young age that plants need water and sunlight to grow properly by growing seeds with them. Growing a pea plant can work well to show a result quite quickly. Try planting several plants in different conditions and see what happens eg leave one in the dark, two on a windowsill and one in the fridge. You could also plant most of them in soil and one in just water. Give all of them except one of the windowsill ones water regularly. After a week or two put all of the plants side by side and see the difference in how they have grown. You can explain that if we change the temperature too much or areas get too dry or wet then it is hard to grow plants. We need plants to eat and to breathe so we need to take action to prevent climate change.

Practical Steps

It can be useful to talk to children in terms of practical things they can do to help prevent climate change. This can stop it feeling overwhelming and out of their control.

Actions children can help to tackle climate change include:

• recycling as much as possible.
• choosing products with less packaging.
• choosing toys and clothes that are made from recycled materials.
• buying second hand toys and clothes.
• not wasting water eg turning the tap off while brushing their teeth.
• not wasting electricity and turning the TV off when not being watched.
• having at least one meat free day a week.

By helping children feel they can make a difference through their actions it makes climate change less scary and helps them be more engaged with making a difference.

It's important to teach children about Climate Change and why recycling is important