NEWS

Fisher-Price joins Mattel PlayBack programme

Published on: 7th June 2022

The Fisher-Price brand has joined Barbie, Mega and Matchbox in the PlayBack programme, which recovers and reuses materials in Mattel toys.

Mattel has announced the expansion of its Mattel PlayBack programme to include Fisher-Price toys. Fisher-Price joins Barbie, Mega and Matchbox brands in the toy takeback initiative, which enables families to extend the life of their Mattel toys once they have finished playing with them.

The new programme is designed to recover materials from old Mattel toys and reuse them in future Mattel products, keep materials out of landfills and support the company’s goal to achieve 100% recycled, recyclable, or bio-based plastic materials in its products and packaging by 2030.

“The Mattel PlayBack programme has been eagerly received by consumers and has provided tremendous learning specific to the durability and disassembly of our products, which will aid in the future design of products made for the circular economy,” said Pamela Gill-Alabaster, SVP global head of Sustainability and Social Impact, Mattel. “We are also exploring new technologies in plastic processing and recycling, with our longer-term goal to use materials collected through Mattel PlayBack in future toy production.”

Launched in the US, Canada, France, Germany and the UK in 2021, the company celebrates the successful one-year anniversary of the Mattel PlayBack programme, which will now include non-electronic Fisher-Price toys, including Laugh & Learn, Little People, Imaginext brands and more, extending the programme’s benefits to even more consumers than ever before.

“At Fisher-Price, we design toys to be loved, cherished and passed on from one generation to the next. The Mattel PlayBack programme, aimed at repurposing these materials into new products and help the environment, now provides parents and caregivers the opportunity to give these beloved Fisher-Price toys a new lease of life,” added Chuck Scothon, SVP and GM of Fisher-Price Infant and Pre-school.

To participate in Mattel PlayBack, consumers can visit Mattel.com/PlayBack, print a free shipping label, and pack and mail their outgrown Mattel toys back to Mattel. The toys collected will be sorted and separated by material type and responsibly processed and recycled. For materials that cannot be repurposed as recycled content into new toys, Mattel will either downcycle those materials into other plastic products or convert them from waste to energy.

The Mattel PlayBack programme supports Mattel’s product stewardship and circular design principles, and the expansion of the programme adds to a growing list of product launches and corporate initiatives that ladder up to Mattel’s ESG strategy and goals and support the company’s aim to contribute to a more diverse, equitable, inclusive and sustainable future.

Mattel recently launched a nationwide educational resource to engage UK primary schools and KS2 pupils in learning about sustainably and introducing its Mattel PlayBack programme to children for the first time. This will run throughout 2022 in 700 schools, with over 150,000 pupils.

Visit mattel.com to learn more about Mattel’s sustainability goals or visit the Mattel PlayBack website to learn more about the initiative.

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