Hasbro phases out plastic in its packaging, but not its toys

By Polly Chen

Hasbro, one of the biggest toy manufacturers in the world, recently announced plans to phase plastic out of its new product packaging. Hasbro aims to eliminate all plastic packaging in their new toys by the end of 2022.

John Frascotti, President and Chief Operating Officer of Hasbro, said:

We know consumers share our commitment to protecting the environment, and we want families to feel good knowing that our packaging will be virtually plastic-free, and our products can be easily recycled through our Toy Recycling Program with TerraCycle.

However, Hasbro’s toys will still be made from plastic. And the company is still “actively exploring” alternate sustainable materials for their future products.

“There are really very few toys that are good candidates for recycling”

According to Hasbro’s president, redesigning packaging will be “a complex undertaking”. Hasbro plans to gradually eliminate all plastic packaging elements, including polybags, elastic bands, shrink wrap, box “window” sheets and blister packs. Toys will either be unpackaged or wrapped in paper.

Removing plastic packaging follows Hasbro’s other sustainability commitments in recent years. In 2018, Hasbro launched their toy recycling program in partnership with TerraCycle.

Plastic toys account for 90 percent of the total toy market. But recycling toys has traditionally been difficult, as most are made from unrecyclable plastic. Brent Bell, vice president of recycling at Waste Management, said: “There are really very few toys that are good candidates for recycling”.

And even if toys are made from recyclable plastic, recycling often remains a challenge. That’s because most toys are composed of several different parts and materials like metals, electronics and textiles. These are difficult for recycling processing centers to separate from the product and recycle individually.

For example, if there are unrecyclable hairs on a doll, the toy is no longer recyclable in one piece and must be disassembled and separated by material.

Sue Kauffman, public relations manager for TerraCycle, said many toys are unlikely to be recycled at all:

The only time a toy can be recycled is if it is made from only one material that also happens to be recyclable.

TerraCycle focuses specifically on hard-to-recycle products like toys that municipal recycling centers can’t handle. TerraCycle separates the toy materials, then cleans the recyclable plastic and grinds it into pellets. These pellets can then be reshaped for use in new products like shipping pallets and park benches.

Hasbro is now expanding its toy recycling program to France, Germany and Brazil to minimize their carbon footprint further.

Lego is redesigning their products to be more sustainable

While Hasbro is focusing on eliminating plastic packaging and recycling their toys, other toy brands are redesigning their toys to be more eco-friendly. Lego, the toy giant that sells plastic construction toys, is redesigning their classic plastic bricks to be more sustainable.

Lego sells 75 billion Lego bricks each year. Every brick is traditionally made of a high-quality and oil-based plastic called Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS).

In 2018, Lego announced they will start making some of their Legos from “sustainable, plant-based” plastic. The new pieces are made from a flexible, soft and durable plastic called polyethylene. This plastic is made with ethanol extracted from sugarcane. Lego claims that polyethylene is as durable as conventional plastic and can be recycled many times.

For now, only Lego trees, leaves and bushes are made of the polyethene but Lego plans to use sustainable materials in all core products by 2030. Lego has also set a goal to use 100 percent sustainable packaging by 2025.

Follow the link below to learn more about Hasbro’s plan for phasing out plastic in toy packaging.

A major toy company is phasing out plastic — but not in its toys – Terry Nguyen, Vox

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Polly Chen is a Client Manager at InTouch Manufacturing Services, a QC firm that performs product inspections and factory audits in Asia for clients in the US, EU and Australia.