14 Best Eco-Friendly Toys for Babies, Toddlers and Kids

Solid wood building blocks are a classic, traditional toy, and this 70-piece set is our current favorite — and a sustainable toy to boot. The wood is FSC-certified, sustainably harvested and decorated with water-based finishes. Unique shapes invite kids to build tall towers, castles with arches and even a pull car using the round pieces for wheels. Two-year-old toddlers have as much fun with this as 4-year-old preschoolers. Ages 18 months+

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This is four vehicles in one: The car-carrying truck plus removable cars in red, green and yellow. Kids love pretend-playing both inside and outside with the foot-long, rolling, swiveling transporter. As far as being eco-friendly, Green Toys is one of our favorite brands. This is made in the USA from recycled plastic and is free of BPA and phthalates. It's even safe to clean in the dishwasher! Ages 3+

Plan Toys goes further than most companies to create green, sustainable playthings. Many of its toys are made from rubberwood trees that are no longer viable for latex manufacturing.

In addition, the company harvests its own sawdust and makes additional toys from what it calls PlanWood, essentially cleaned, leftover sawdust molded into eco-friendly toys. This cool dino car is one such PlanWood toy, decorated with non-toxic paints and dyes. It's a darling size, about 4 by 4 inches, so it's easy to stick in your diaper bag and perfect for your toddler to clutch or let roll. Ages 12 months+

A winner of our most recent Best Toy Awards, this adorable 13-inch stuffed animal for babies and toddlers is made from 100% recycled materials, from the fluffy outside to the stuffing inside to the packaging. This is the ducky, but there are lots of other animal versions too including a lavender lamb, pink bunny and blue puppy. Embroidered eyes make it safe for infants, and this environmentally-friendly baby product is machine-washable, too. Ages 0+

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Fractions aren't as mysterious once your kid absorbs the lessons from this pretty wooden educational puzzle. It's a STEM toy that makes clear how a whole orange is twice as much as a lemon half, and three times as big as a third of an apple. The toy knife gives kids a chance to hone fine-motor skills as they pretend to slice the tasty fruits. Like PlanToys, Tender Leaf Toys are made from reclaimed rubberwood, a by-product of latex manufacturing. This is painted with water-based paints and packaged in cardboard. Ages 18 months+

When you're looking for infant toys there aren't a ton of wooden options, but this is one of the best eco-friendly baby products. The Skwish rattle was invented in the '90s and is now considered a classic! It's easy for babies to grab onto the dowels and wave it around, pass it from hand to hand — a fantastic baby milestone! — and explore how pressing in causes the whole thing to, well, squish thanks to the elastic bands. It's roughly a 6-inch cube, which feels big and exciting to an infant. Ages 0+

Geomag is a Swiss brand and the Magicubes, one of our favorite magnetic toys, are inch-and-a-half square blocks made from 100 percent recycled plastic that attach to each other from any side. Our kid testers have had fun building with these quality blocks, and though this 64-piece set offers a ton of construction options, there's also a smaller 32-piece set that won one of our previous Best Toy Awards. Ages 1+

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Heritage brand Brio uses FSC-Certified wood to help keep its train toys sustainable. This starter set, perfect for toddlers and preschoolers, comes with 14 pieces of track, a train engine and two cars, a station, a bridge and three wooden trees. If your kid loves it, it's easy to add more wooden track pieces and accessories through the years. Ages 2+

Wow! This three-story, six-room wooden playhouse has won multiple awards for many reasons. You can switch out the season just by reversing some parts — for instance, the roof (with its eco-aware pretend solar panels) shows green summer on one side and snowy winter on the other. The house, constructed of FSC-certified wood and water-based paints, is almost 30 inches tall and comes with wooden furniture your child can rearrange however they'd like. Buy a set of people (there are several to choose from) separately. Ages 3+

Kids can pretend-play away with this gorgeous play kitchen made with sustainably sourced birch plywood with plant- and water-based finishes. It's sized for toddlers and preschoolers at about 27 inches wide and 24 inches high, and it can store pretend food and mini pots and pans in the foot-deep cabinets. There's a stove that opens, a pretend range with moving knobs and a little sink. And it's surprisingly easy to put together! Ages 3+

This collab between a British wooden-toy maker (using FSC-certified wood) and Pottery Barn Kids has yielded some really beautiful, sustainable toys, including this busy cube with activities on four sides plus the top. It's a sturdy, approximately 12-inch cube that weighs nearly five pounds. It also comes with five blocks that fit into a shape-sorter side, not shown. You can flip the bead maze over and store it inside the cube to save space when not in use. Ages 12 months+

Bath toys can be eco-friendly too, like this floating boat that ferries along two cars. Like our previous Green Toys pick, this is made in the U.S. from 100% recycled plastic, much of which comes from recycled milk jugs. Our tester parents noted that there aren't any small pieces to come apart on this toy, and that it's fun to roll the cars down the ramp both in the water and on dry land. The brand also has a cool submarine which doesn't come with any extra accessories but is also super fun. Ages 3+

There's so many cool wooden and eco-friendly toys for little kids, but what about the bigger ones? Hape makes this beautiful wooden ukulele, a fun first instrument and eco-friendly toy made from FSC-certified wood. While it's safe for kids starting at age 3, our testing shows that older kids are more into tuning, playing and singing along with this. Ages 3+

Challenge your little one to balance the pieces of this wooden cactus without sending it toppling. It's got a base plus 18 cactus pieces to work with, including green and yellow branches and orange and red cactus flowers. You can also make this a game between up to four people, taking turns adding pieces and trying to keep the cactus upright. It's constructed with sustainable rubberwood, formaldehyde-free glue, organic pigments and water-based dyes. Ages 3+