Toymaker Hasbro to phase out plastic packaging by 2023

The company, whose brands include My Little Pony, Play-Doh, Magic: The Gathering and Monopoly, will start the transition beginning in 2020. Hasbro’s Sustainability Center of Excellence is charged with driving the integration of sustainability across the business, including driving sustainable packaging design principles.

Hasbro's efforts to improve its environmental sustainability include eliminating wire ties in 2010, adding How2Recycle labelling in 2016, introducing the use of plant-based bioPET in 2018, and most recently, launching an toy recycling programme with TerraCycle.

The plastics ban covers just the packaging, not the plastic action figures or dolls or trucks inside the packaging. But Hasbro said it is targeting the most wasteful part of the toy buying experience – the part most likely to immediately end up in the trash.

“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,” said John Frascotti, president and chief operating officer, Hasbro.

The company's toy recycling programme, available in France, Germany, Brazil and the U.S, enables consumers to send well-loved Hasbro toys and games to TerraCycle to recycle them into materials to be used in the construction of play spaces, flowerpots, park benches, and other innovative uses. Hasbro plans to expand the programme to its additional major markets.