A Comprehensive Life-Cycle Assessment of Locally Oriented Small-Scale Toy Industries: A Study of traditional Channapatna Toys as Against Low-cost PVC (Poly-Vinyl Chloride) Toys Made in China

摘要

Toys play an elemental role in the mental, physical, social and emotional development of children. These toys are available in a variety of materials to choose from e.g.: Plastic, wood, cloth etc. Channapatna toys are softwood toys locally manufactured in Channapatna town, Bangalore rural-district in India. These toys are usually made from softwood obtained from Wrightia tinctoria , which are then lacquered and sold. The aim of this paper is to study the environmental impacts of Channapatna toys vis-a-vis Plastic toys - specifically Poly-vinyl Chloride (PVC); by Life-cycle assessment (LCA) on Simapro 8.4. This comparative study revealed that locally-made Channapatna toys were less toxic, consumed less energy and had minimum environmental impacts as compared to readily available PVC toys. Additionally, solutions were proposed to promote such locally-oriented small-scale toy industries; which not only safeguard the future of children but are also environmentally sustainable and help preserve the traditional craft and cultural heritage.