Mattel wants people to return old toys to recycle

Julie Brooks-Girskiene

Just saw this news story from a couple of months ago, but I think it's quite cool.

Good news for 90s kids who have laundry baskets filled with Barbies in their parents' basements: Mattel wants to recycle your old toys. The 76-year-old toy company is launching a pilot program called "Mattel PlayBack" that is designed to recover and reuse materials in old toys for future Mattel products. The new effort is the company's latest step toward a sustainability-focused future. Mattel previously committed to using 100% recycled, recyclable or bio-based plastic materials across all of its products and packaging by 2030.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/10/busin...ity/index.html

At the moment it is only in a few countries, but it would be great if they could spread it wider and if other companies that produce a lot of plastic stuff did the same.

Piri

Julie Brooks-Girskiene

This is nice. Even I think it is a bit marketing thingy, but it doesn't matter so much if they do something good. Big companies should do good. Lego recycle old pieces that people bring as well.

Talking about toys there is some toys monthly subscriptions - they send different toys each month according to the kids age and needs and if they are returned broken they fix so it can used again and again….

Ash

Good PR for them but it's also beneficial so I have no complaints about it. Hopefully, more companies can start doing things like this to encourage people to recycle their old stuff easily.

I am Ashlynn

Toys are one of those things that people hoard, just in case, in boxes in attics. I'm not really sure what they are hoarding them for but I don't think will make many people give them up.

Also in some cases they are worth a lot of money these days, though maybe not things made by Mattel.

John

I am Ashlynn though maybe not things made by Mattel.

So, my 60 seconds of research finds that… actually Matchbox cars and Masters of the Universe action figures were both made by Mattel and are worth quite a lot.

Ash

I guess that is why some people tend to hoard toys. Maybe they think that one day it will be worth a lot so they keep it. Or the toys have some sentimental value so they feel bad to throw them away.

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