| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| cab |
Laws on selling toysI was talking to the lady who runs this company when I ran into her at the weekend:http://www.cambridgeeducationaltoys.co.uk/ Nice lass, used to have a stall on the market selling toys. She was bemoaning how incredibly difficult and expensive it is to get a toy you've made safety checked to sell, and how that means that a lot of the smaller scale producers either have to flout the law or just don't compete, and that retailers who are good and keep within the law may struggle to fend off competition from other retailers who are more lax. Not an area I know a great deal about, but I'm a little curious, and I wonder whether this might be why we don't see many small scale producers making 'ethical' or 'sustainable' toys? And as theres a flood of weddings coming up in our diary, presumably to be followed by a flood of christenings and suchlike, because so many of our friends and family do insist on reproducing, I'm interested to find out. Anyone clued up on this? Whats the score? |
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| JB |
Is this the same reason that many just stick on a label saying 'not suitable for anyone under the age of 95 unless accompanied by at least 5 grandparents'?
And how do people get around it when they sell 'traditional' wooden toys? Do they have to be sold as 'ornaments' or 'craft projects' or some other euphemism to get around this? |
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| Solorn |
There are many many producers of toys in this country who 'get round' the law by selling in small online communities. Places like Etsy and DaWanda allow any to set up a shop and sell their goods. To get round the safety laws most people will add a tag line of 'This Is Not A Toy' even if it is. The items that I have sold in the past have been sold as 'For Ornamental Use Only'.
I sell custom soft toys and the amount it would cost me to have them safety checked etc would be more than I make in a year. The other little nightmare is that there are different health and safety regs for each Country. I could make soap in my kitchen and sell it in the USA with no problem at all.In Britain I would need every single type I made, lab tested and approved for use before selling. So much red tape, so much time invested, so little return. |
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| Jamanda |
Don't we have a member who sells hand made toys? Dotty Spots? | ||||
| sean |
I'm not sure that's right. Sally-in-Wales is up on the soap regs though. |
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| RichardW |
When we considered doing it that was my take on the regs. Even approved/tested melt & pour bases needed re approval if you added any thing to it. Richard |
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| sally_in_wales |
Its basically right, you do need to have every last recipe tested and signed off, and register as a cosmetics manufacturer and have stamped for trade scales and that sort of thing. Having said that, its certainly do-able, its just a case of knowing that you want to sell enough soap to recoup the costs. When I had mine done it cost roughly £60 a recipe to have the certification done plus the layout on equipment and insurance and a few evenings wrangling the paperwork. Was certainly not something I would do on the spur of the moment but if you have a good product, worth staying on the right side of the regulations. I would imagine the same applies to toys, if you have a good product, its no huge palaver to get the legislative side right 
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| Helen_A |
Toys intended for the under 18's are a nightmare, basically. But you can, um, get around things by selling them as decorative items and properly labelled as 'not suitable for under xxx'. The choke test is the worst one to sort out (does it fit down the middle of a loo roll? then its too small)
There are some good trade bodies that can sort a lot of the paperwork for you, but from a PIL pov its too darn expensive to diy. If you have things made in bulk then the manufacturer will sort the paperwork (for a fee, of course). Hence the popularity of China/Malaysia as places of manufacture, as they will usually get the BS etc for you as part of the cost per item of your order. Its why a lot of toys that *seem* individual won't actually be that as they will be being sold under private label. |