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Here's how some of the biggest toy brands are making strides toward protecting the planet's natural resources

US toy firm Radio Flyer has revealed its safer material strategy in a webinar this week on the Chemical Footprint Project (CFP).

The company became the first within the toy industry to adopt such an 'environmentally friendly' stance towards their packaging, which took approximately six years to develop. Adam Gendell, Sustainable Packaging Coalition Associate Director told Toy & Hobby Retailer, "Disney is rising to the challenge by reinventing its long-standing practices to set a new standard across its industry that is not only more sustainable but that will inform what generations of children will expect of packaging and its environmental impact."

Lego is pumping millions of dollars into its quest to find new, sustainable materials for its popular plastic toy bricks. While the company's goal with this initiative is to build better toys, it may end up shifting the plastics industry away from its oil-based roots.

Lego Group today pledged to work with its suppliers to reduce total carbon emissions as it joins the World Wildlife Federation's Climate Savers program. If Lego reduced CO2 emissions directly related to toy production at Lego factories by a minimum of 10 percent - the target - this would remove about 10,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions, the toy manufacturer says.

Lego is putting cash before kids and the environment, says a Greenpeace report that calls on the world's biggest toy company to stop making toys with Shell's branding. Greenpeace says the oil giant is threatening the Arctic and that Shell is using Lego to neutralize controversy over its climate impacts and plans to drill for oil in the Arctic.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously voted to outlaw a host of commonly used foam products, in a move hailed as the nation's most extensive such ban. The ban applies to polystyrene food packaging, packing peanuts, to-go containers, coffee cups and pool toys, among other things. For most products, the ban will take effect Jan. 1, 2017.

San Francisco just took a major step to save the environment. The city's Board of Supervisors unanimously passed an ordinance to ban the sale of polystyrene - more commonly known by its brand-name "styrofoam" - on Tuesday. It's the broadest ban on the product in the country, according to Mother Jones. "The science is clear," London Breed, Board of Supervisors president, said in a statement in April. "This stuff is an environmental and public health pollutant, and we have to reduce its use." Starting January 1, 2017, vendors will no longer be able to sell polystyrene products, from food packaging and coffee cups to packing peanuts and pool toys, according to Science Alert. And starting July 1, styrofoam fish and meat trays in supermarkets will also be banned.

The Lego Group is making good on its promise to spend 1 billion Danish Krone ($150.5 million) to develop new sustainable materials for its plastic Lego toys and packaging materials. This includes the establishment of the Lego Sustainable Materials Centre in Billund, Denmark.

Greenpeace continued its campaign against LEGO on Tuesday with the release of a dramatic video, called "Everything Is NOT Awesome," aimed at further illustrating the reasons the toy company should sever its ties with Shell, which Greenpeace contends is putting the delicate Arctic marine environment at risk through its oil drilling.

Toxic toys, contraband cigarettes and old sunglasses are among the waste products being burnt to manufacture cement by Holcim, Bloomberg reports. Holcim - the world's largest cement manufacturer - is increasing its use of waste in place of coal to heat cement kilns as a means of cutting costs. Holcim sites from India to Vietnam are now using waste in this way, the news service reports.