Special Interest

Recycled Matchbox Cars Take Steps Towards Mattel's 2030 Goal

(Mattel, 2021)

In recent years, the multi-faceted toy company Mattel has set an end goal of becoming more environmentally conscious by the end of the decade.

Aligned with Mattel’s goal to achieve 100% recycled, recyclable, or bio-based plastic materials in our products and packaging by 2030, we introduced several new toy products in 2021, which incorporated more sustainable resin feedstocks and integrated principles of product stewardship and circular design (Mattel, n.d.).

UNO Nothin’ But Paper! eliminated the cellophane wrapping from all of its card games, replacing it with FSC-certified paper (Mattel, n.d.).

Matchbox announced Driving Toward a Better Future, its product roadmap to make all Matchbox die-cast cars, playsets, and packaging with 100% recycled, recyclable, or bio-based plastic materials by 2030 (Mattel, n.d.).

The special Matchbox Tesla Roadster diecast, made of 99% recycled materials and certified as a CarbonNeutral® product with carbon offset credits supporting the preservation of grasslands in Colorado and Montana, serves as a blueprint for how eco-conscious Matchbox toys and packaging can be. The packaging is made of recycled FSC-certified materials, and the inner tray is made of 70% bio-based materials derived from potatoes (Mattel, n.d.).

While this initiative is a step in the right direction, completely sourcing new materials and changing the production methods of the entire company is a pretty lofty goal. It's interesting to see what type of materials are being used to accomplish these goals, usually just environmentally conscious materials, in the case of the paper UNO. However, the Matchbox Tesla Roadster combines recycled material for the product with biomaterial in the packaging. Covering all aspects of a package is a good indicator that Mattel is serious about this effort, as packaging could be something left to a last-minute thought in terms of its environmental friendliness.

References

Mattel. (n.d.). Sustainable materials in toys. Mattel Corporate
https://corporate.mattel.com/sustainable-materials-in-toys

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