Cork-based mum develops toy sharing app

A CARRIGALINE-based mum is developing the first toy sharing app designed to provide a sustainable solution to tackle toy-related waste.

Called The Toy Library, it will work as a peer-to-peer sharing platform, where users can sign up and upload a photo of the toy(s) they want to give and select a date and time in which these will be available for the collection.

At the same time, people who are looking for a toy will be able to browse the largest national database of free toys, and request them from other users.

It will be geo-located, to make sure people see what’s available around them in their neighbourhood. The project wants to enable two goals: sustainability and community.

The app is the brainchild of Giorgia Anile, who is originally from Italy but who has been living in Ireland since 2011.  Her lightbulb moment for the unique idea came when she decided to clear her attic of all the baby toys and items she had accumulated since her daughter Sophia was born in 2016.

“In July, 2022, I went through a giving spurt. As a member of many freecycle groups on Facebook, it wasn’t hard to find takers for the items I was giving away, but the experience was not easy.

It became a full-time job for a few days, with people commenting on my posts creating a ‘queue’, others contacting me directly on messenger, requests overlapping each other, people not showing up for collection, and me trying to do the right thing and be fair to everyone.

“As I went through that, I thought: there has to be a better way to do this!” said Giorgia, who has been working in tech (Amazon, IBM, Workday), mostly as a product researcher.

“Contextually, I had also been reading this book by Jason Higgel (Less is more: How Degrowth will save the World), which I had found incredibly inspiring, and I started thinking about finally going for a PhD and continuing my education. Then, a few months later, I heard an official government ad about the Circular Economy.

“So, it was more a constellation of lightbulb moments that somehow created this project, and I thought why not mix tech and the Circular Economy? What are digital platforms doing to enable a smarter use of our resources? That was my research question.

“As I started drafting a proposal for my ‘future’ supervisor in UCC (Prof. Luigina Ciolfi), I came to the idea of toy libraries, and absolutely fell in love with it and wanted to build one in my village of Carrigaline.

“I submitted the idea to Rethink Ireland and it was selected to be part of the ‘How to build a Social Enterprise’ course; I attended the course for a few months, and as I worked with their mentors, I realised there was no way I could have built a physical toy library with the massive overheads and logistics needed to run one, so I thought: let’s make an app, and let the users share with each other. Let’s become a platform!

Rethink Ireland loved the idea, and I got a start-up grant to get the Toy Library started.

A survey she conducted in Carrigaline in 2022 showed an appetite for her idea: more than 30% of parents or caregivers of young children who responded, agreed or strongly agreed that their children quickly lose interest in their toys; more than 60% agreed or strongly agreed it is a struggle to recycle toys, and more than 90% agreed or strongly agreed that they wished there was a more sustainable way of buying, using and recycling toys.

“Toys, predominantly those crafted from plastic, wield a considerable ecological footprint, significantly contributing to global warming. A staggering two-thirds are manufactured from plastic, often becoming swiftly discarded as children lose interest. Alarming statistics reveal merely 9% of the total plastic ever produced has undergone recycling, with 12% incinerated, and the remainder finding its way into soils, oceans, and landfills.

In the Irish context, the recycling rate for electronic toys, encompassing gaming consoles, action figures, e-scooters, and e-bikes, is distressingly below 10%.

“This compels us to confront a pressing environmental issue: the imperative need for sustainable solutions to tackle toy-related waste and foster increased recirculation within Irish society,” she said.

As well as developing The Toy Library, Giorgia is in the first year of her PhD in Human Computer Interaction in the Schools of Applied Psychology and Computer Science & IT in UCC (sponsored by ADVANCE CRT and SFI).

“The more I learn about the Circular Economy and digital platforms, the more I think this path is worth pursuing and we can drive a massive social impact and radical change in our communities,” she said.

More funding is needed to get the idea to market, but great strides are being made all the time.

“The app has been designed, we ‘only’ need to develop it, test it and launch it,” said Giorgia. “We have been engaging with our Local Enterprise Office and hope we’ll get a feasibility grant to help us pay for the app development. The Toy Library is a social enterprise and doesn’t have investors, but sponsors, and I have found amazing collaborators (a mix of co-workers and former co-workers) who have joined the board of directors and have helped massively with everything we’ve done so far. Without their contribution, the Toy Library project wouldn’t exist. I would also like to thank my supervisor in UCC for being so supportive of this project and encouraging me to pursue it even when it all seemed too big to handle,” she said.

Finally, Giorgia said none of it would be possible without her family; “My husband Walter always has my back and allows me follow my path, and my daughter Sophia is the inspiration for everything I do to try and create a better world.”

For more information see thetoylibrary.ie