Mattel Inc. wants all of its plastic toys and packaging to be recycled, recyclable or made from bio-based plastic by 2030.
The El Segundo, Calif.-based company announced the plan Dec. 18 as it unveiled the first product line to switch materials in that effort. Its Rock-a-Stack line of baby toys will switch to sugar cane-based polyethylene and recycled or sustainably sourced packaging in the first half of 2020.
"Environmental sustainability is a corporate priority at Mattel and creating sustainable products and packaging is an important part of our commitment to the planet," Chairman and CEO Ynon Kreiz said. "Today, we are delivering on that priority by announcing our first product made from sustainable materials and we look forward to expanding our efforts to all Mattel brands."
The company said it created an internal Environmental Sustainability Council earlier in 2019 to look at sustainability in several areas, including materials innovation.
That council will operate as a cross-functional team and will also look at product and packaging design, along with the production process, Kreiz said.
The company said the plastics effort expands on environmental sourcing principles first announced in 2011.
As a result, Mattel said it now sources 93 percent of its paper and wood fiber used in packaging and products from recycled or Forest Stewardship Council content and has adopted the How2Recycle label for its products.
The company did not provide other details on its plastics initiative but said it's on track for all of its Rock-a-Stack toys — first introduced in 1960 — to be made from sugar cane-based PE by the end of 2020.
Other toymakers got an earlier start in exploring bioplastics. Lego A/S in 2015, for example, announced it was spending more than $150 million and hiring 100 staff to develop a bioplastic alternative to its iconic ABS toy bricks. Lego made a similar commitment to use sustainable materials in core products and packaging by 2030.