Ikea highlights sustainability with animal plush toy line

The new collection also comes with a line of story books that help parents teach children better about saving the wildlife.

Protection of the environment is one of the most important topics that children will eventually need to learn as they grow up. This not only includes preservation of plants and landscape, but also animals, as some of them are already becoming at risk of extinction.

Swedish retailer Ikea is looking to do just that with its new collection of plush toys featuring some of the planet's most endangered animals. The Djungelskog and Urksog toy lines aim to raise awareness of the threat being posed on significant wild animals. These include elephants, tigers, pandas, which are all made of polyester yarn sourced from recycled plastic bottles.

The collection comes with a line of story books, which aims to help parents in answering children's questions better about sustainability, while also giving older children an opportunity to learn on their own.

"We started the project from the perspective 'How can we engage children in sustainability topics?'" said Nina Hughes, range manager for children's Ikea, in a report by MNN. "We always start from the child's perspective and we know that wild animals fascinate them. Children also have a great sense of fairness and equality, so the direction of endangered animals became obvious early on."

Furthermore, according to Hughes, the animals in the collection were chosen not only with the input of World Wildlife Fund (WWF), but also with the idea that these animals could relate to, or connect with children.

Back in February, ecoBirdy, a Belgium-based company, launched its collection of children's furniture made of recycled plastic toys.

As more companies become more aware of the effects of manufacturing toys using harmful materials and chemicals, volume buyers can expect to see more products that are more environment-friendly. Not only will this be more preferred by consumers over time, it will also help lessen waste in the long run.