‘My toy-sharing platform has become a community,' says Cork mum

Wed, 23 Jul, 2025 - 07:00

Dmer Harrington

Giorgia Anile is an experienced product researcher who is currently completing a PhD.

But it was becoming a parent that inspired her to create the innovative toy-sharing platform, The Toy Library, which has just marked its first anniversary.

“We were drowning in toys,” says Giorgia, who is mum to nine-year-old Sophia.

“A lot of these toys were plastic, and I was very uncomfortable with that. I wanted to offload some of them, give them to someone who may have wanted them.”

While searching for an alternative to Facebook for passing on used toys, Giorgia decided to build her own platform and make it her research project.

“My PhD is in human computer interaction, and my research question is about digital platforms and how they can enable circular economy. So this was really like the cherry on top, it just ticked all the boxes.”

The initiative was launched in Cork in June, 2024, and a year on, Giorgia says the platform is “going better than I could ever have possibly imagined.”

The country’s first toy-sharing platform has saved 1,700 kg of plastic, the equivalent of €36,985 worth of toys.

Over 2,480 families from all around the country have been involved, with 2,282 toys recirculated since it was launched.

“It became a lot more than a platform. It has become a movement. It’s now a community of people that actually meet up in person as well at our Swap and Play events,” says Giorgia.

The Swap and Play events take place around the country, and parents and children are welcome to bring along toys they no longer use, and find new toys to take home.

Giorgia Anile, Founder and Director of The Toy Library, which recently celebrated its first year. Picture: Clare Keogh.

Giorgia and her team regularly get feedback from parents who are happy to see their kids’ toys finally being played with.

“They bring five, six toys that their kids haven’t been using, and they were gathering dust, and then in the span of two minutes, there’s a kid playing with those toys, and they’re taking them home.

“It just fills your heart in a way that it’s really hard to describe, unless you experience it.”

The website is simple and user- friendly.

“You sign up to The Toy Library, it takes 30 seconds. You verify your email, and then you can start listing a toy, or you can browse the toys available in your area, or you can search and consider it like a marketplace, where only toys, or mostly toys, are allowed.

“But there is no buying and selling. It’s only giving and taking.”

The initiative has become so popular that Giorgia has had to hire staff and scale up to meet demand.

“We had to get serious really quickly, operationalise, streamline all of the things that we do, on-board new people, and have some level of governance in the way we work.”

The Toy Library is a social enterprise, and is supported by Rethink Ireland and Community Foundation Ireland.

“They have been supporting us, and that really helps us to build that capacity so that we can offer these services to the people,” she says.

“The one thing that we always made sure of is that people don’t have to pay for this. We want to keep this free for people forever.”

One of Giorgia’s goals is to change how we think about toys, and she already sees the impact The Toy Library is having on children who use it.

“What is really lovely is to hear the stories from the families saying, ‘I’m doing this because I want to be an example to my children, and they will do what they see’.

“Or people saying, ‘my kid told me the other day, I don’t want this toy anymore, list it on The Toy Library’.

“That’s the thing that’s really mind-blowing, the fact that it’s becoming so easily normalised in kids themselves, they actually really embrace it.”

Sustainability is at the heart of The Toy Library, and Giorgia hopes to reduce the negative impact of plastic toys on the environment through long-term behaviour change.

“What I’m trying to do, really, in the grand scheme of things, is to change mindsets so that for the future generations, circular practices like sharing, swapping, reusing, they become so normalised that we can actually reverse some of the terrible outcomes of climate change.”

As The Toy Library continues to grow, there are opportunities for local authorities, businesses, and community groups to collaborate and get involved.

“We invite local authorities, but also conscious corporations, to support The Toy Library. If they would like to sponsor a Swap and Play event in their workplace, for their employees or in the wider community, please reach out, because we have such lovely initiatives and such good campaigns coming up,” says Giorgia.

“It’s good for everyone, it’s good for the employees, it’s good for the kids, it’s good for the environment, and it’s very aligned with sustainable development goals.”