Teddy bears to garden chairs: Hasbro launches UK recycling scheme for toys

Toy maker Hasbro has become the latest major brand to partner with TerraCycle to offer a free, UK-wide recycling programme for its products, enabling customers to send back old toys to be transformed into new items.

The scheme will see old Hasbro toys, action figures, dolls and board games collected by Terracycle in the UK and transformed into materials used to make new products, including outdoor furniture and planters, the US firm announced today.

Hasbro, which owns a raft of household toy brands including My Little Pony, Monopoly, Sesame Street and Playdoh, explained that customers across the UK will be able to drop off their old toys at a number public drop-off locations. Customers would also be able to set up their own drop-off location, it added.

The launch of the recycling programme follows the success of similar initiatives between the multinational toy brand and TerraCycle in Germany, the US, Canada, and Brazil.

Kay Green, UK country manager at Hasbro, said the initaitive would appeal to its consumers' growing sustainability concerns. "At Hasbro, we know kids and families everywhere share our passion for protecting our planet," she said. "Since launching the Hasbro recycling programme in the US in 2018, we've successfully expanded to additional markets throughout the world, to offer more consumers a sustainable solution for giving new life to their well-loved toys and games and we're proud to further extend the programme, in partnership with TerraCycle, to the UK."

The partnership builds on a suite of sustainability initiatives from the toy giant, which began a staged phase out of plastic from its product packaging this year in pursuit of its goal to eliminate "virtually all plastic" from new products by 2022. The firm also began manufacturing toys using plant-based 'bioPET' in 2018.

Laure Cucuron, general manager of TerraCycle Europe, said that she hoped the programme would inspire younger generations to recycle. "We are proud to partner with Hasbro to launch this national recycling programme in the UK, given its popularity in other countries around the world," she said. "The aim of the programme is to encourage new generations to recycle their well-loved toys and games, and have a positive impact on the environment."

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• Topics
• Recycling
• Hasbro
• Terracycle