Rent-A-Toy

It gets a whole lot harder to be green when you have kids. Even if you surround your children with good examples of sustainable living and commercial-free media, eventually their friends or billboards or something will convince them that the "need" a whole slew of material things. Of course, this is not true. And we adults can do a lot to help fight this mind-set through good parenting and community support.

Yet, there are battles we choose not to fight with children. Perhaps you'd like to satiate their undying desire for, say, a remote control car. Instead of heading out to the mall to buy one, consider the green alternatives:

-Borrow the toy from a friend, neighbor, cousin, etc. Kids lose interest in most toys very quickly. There's almost certainly a forgotten specimen of the toy you're looking for in the bottom of the toy box of someone you know.

-Buy the toy from a thrift store or Goodwill. These type of organizations do good in the community, too. If you support their work, support their retail fundraising.

-Buy the toy used online through eBay, Amazon, etc. This is an excellent way to keep unwanted toys out of the landfill and extend their lives.

-Forgo the carbon footprint of transporting the toy and get it in your community. Craigslist and yard sales are great options. You may even get lucky and find what you're looking for through a Free Cycle program.

-Rent your toys! Programs like Rent-A-Toy work kind of like Netflix, in that you can keep the toys as long as you want and even have the option of buying them if your kid gets really attached. The toys come to you sanitized, in working order, and with pre-paying return packaging.