It can be sad to see our kids growing up and moving on from their old toys (see: Disney•Pixar’s Toy Story 3).
But, as the saying goes, every ending can be a new beginning and Mattel is taking that concept in a new direction with the launch of Mattel PlayBack, a toy takeback program in the U.S. and Canada. The recycling initiative seeks to extend the life of Mattel toys as part of a “circular economy” in which the materials contained in old Mattel toys can be recovered and reused to create new Mattel toys.
While the company still encourages families to donate toys that are in excellent condition to organizations where they may continue to be played with and loved (schools, daycares, hospitals, etc) or passed along to the kids of family and friends, the Mattel PlayBack program is a way to extend the life of the materials once the toys have reached the end of their use.
At the start, Mattel will accept products from its Barbie, Matchbox, and Mega Brands portfolio into the PlayBack program. Consumers can visit the Mattel website to print a free shipping label that they can use to mail toys to Mattel at no cost. Once received, the toys will be sorted and separated by material type and responsibly processed and recycled. For materials that cannot be repurposed as recycled content in new toys, Mattel PlayBack will either downcycle those materials into other plastic products or convert them from waste to energy.
Mattel is moving toward an overarching goal to use 100% recycled, recyclable, or bio-based plastic materials across all of its products and packaging by 2030.
The company recently debuted its Drive Toward a Better Future sustainability program for the Matchbox brand and has issued sustainable updates to several products. Mattel Games’ UNO Nothin’ But Paper is the first recyclable UNO deck produced without cellophane in its packaging, and a range of toys from Fisher-Price and Mega Bloks are being made from bio-based plastics.
