Opened Trading Card Packs Can Now Hold Your Cards Once Again
Collectable trading card games have long been a large source of plastic waste. Each single booster pack comes individually wrapped, and those wraps immediately go into the trash as soon as the product is opened. Bandai Namco, producer of some of the largest modern-day card games, has created a solution: A system in which trading card wrappers can be collected and made into products for the game.
As environmental pollution from plastic waste grows more serious, governments and companies are undertaking various activities to help create a recycling-oriented society. In recent years, more and more consumers expect to have access to eco-friendly products and services (Bandai, n.d.).
In response, Bandai has also explored what it can do and taken action. As part of this, we launched the Opened-Card-Pack Recycling Project. Trading card packs are usually thrown away after opening, as their purpose was fulfilled. This is what caught our attention (Bandai, n.d.).
Collection boxes have been set up at official ONE PIECE Card Game shops and event venues nationwide. The collected card packs are crushed, recycled, and molded into recycled card cases (Bandai, n.d.).
Recycled card cases are made from 45% recycled plastic, including plastic from collected card packs. They have been Eco Mark-certified by the Japan Environment Association while receiving Bandai’s own Sustainable Product Certification Mark (Bandai, n.d.).
We are also exploring ways to recycle these card packs into other products besides card boxes. While maintaining an opened-card-pack collection system, we will expand our recycling projects to raise awareness of such activities among even more people (Bandai, n.d.).
As someone who is personally part of these communities, it has always stuck out to me how much trash is involved with the products. Also, individual booster packs being made of very low-density material such as cellophane and aluminum raises the question of whether they can even be recycled in the first place. Bandai has created a solution to this problem. While their recycled deck boxes are still only 45% recycled material, the ability to use what was previously thought to be a purely wasteful material still shows strides in sustainability practices and the attempt to create an internal circular economy.
References
Launching the opened-card-pack recycling project | Turning opened trading card packs into a resource! (n.d.). Bandai Namco | Sustainability Website. https://www.bandainamco.co.jp/en/sustainability/actions/card-recycle.html
