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Visit the City of San Leandro website at www.sanleandro.org lit up as she heard the satisfying click of plastic tabs seating just right. "We're making toys, and I like to make kids happy," she said. "I tell you - it's just fun." The name of the place where all this elf activity happens is KS Manufacturing, the plant that Green Toys hires to make its plastic-mold playthings. The toy-making accounts for about a quarter of the plant's work (KS also makes car and pool parts), and this time of year those shifts ramp up to 24-7 while they turn out 5,000 toys a day. The place looks like the opposite of a sweatshop. Lights are bright, every machine is sparkly clean and the workers sometimes even whistle while they snap together parts. With a neighboring chocolate-chip-cookie factory filling the air with warm smells and a next-door dairy beckoning with lunchtime milk, the parallels to some kind of Santa's workshop are a bit eerie. On a mission Von Goeben, a wiry man with rimless eyeglasses and a perpetually bouncy demeanor, is clearly a man on a mission. A former venture capitalist who also founded the Propellerhead Studios electronic game and toy company, von Goeben and former marketing executive Laurie Hyman launched the Mill Valley-based company in 2007 with the aim of making it the greenest toymaker around. Green Toys' product line now includes 100 different toys, from the planes and a submarine to a school bus and play kitchenware. Sales this year are about $10 million, and in five years they've won a passel of awards, including national Mom Approved & Child Tested awards for excellence and best green product. The company makes its toys out of recycled plastic milk containers, and the packaging is cardboard with soy-ink lettering. Everything, even the packing boxes, snaps together with no glues or screws, and the coloring used in the plastic - nothing gets painted - is so eco-safe that kids can harmlessly lick it. There was never any question of outsourcing manufacturing overseas, von Goeben said. While experts say more than three-quarters of America's $21 billion toy market consists of products made overseas - mostly in China because of its cheaper labor costs - von Goeben and Hyman wanted to keep things simple and within driving distance. Using recycled plastic helped the bottom line, as did coming up with designs that snap together to make assembly easier. They market their toys to safety-conscious consumers who don't mind spending more for a homegrown, eco- friendly product. Remarkably different Staying local is a remarkable achievement. A new U.S. Census report says California leads the nation in the number of companies that make toys and games - 98 - but longtime national toy expert Stevanne "Dr. Toy" Auerbach said Green Toys is the only major one she knows of in the Bay Area. "It's just amazing what they have created," Auerbach said. "Not only is it wonderful that they manufacture here, but I think Green Toys is unique in the industry. Taking recycled materials like that, especially milk containers that are safe, is great. "They have beautiful designs, and they are very clever." Most of the toys are priced at about $15, none costs more than $25, and they sell only in small toy stores or places like Whole Foods, von Goeben said. Their toys are now in 8,700 retail outlets in 75 countries, including Russia and Japan. Green Toys doesn't need Walmart or Target, von Goeben said. "Everyone wants to know they're contributing to the greater good, and we just felt very strongly we wanted to be environmentally responsible and safe," von Goeben said. "Parents want to know what's in their toys, just like they do with food, and they trust us. And we believe a business exists to serve the community, so we stay local. "Besides," he said, "it's kind of fun to be a real- life Santa."