Episodes

Hey everyone, this is Jack here. I want to welcome you all to the first episode of Green Toys. This is a podcast dedicated to laying out the impact large toy companies that rely heavily on plastic have on the environment. 

I’m sure you’re probably wondering about my qualifications to talk about this topic, so let me fill you in. I’m a senior at Bates College, in Lewiston, ME, majoring in Environmental studies with a concentration in global environmental politics. Here at Bates, I take courses that allow me to better understand how humans interact with the Earth, and why we choose to do it the way we do. Now in terms of children’s toys. I’m like you, I was once a kid thrilled for the latest lego sets, room full of hot wheels, used to draw on my sisters barbie dolls and use the barbie house as a fort for my own action figures. I grew up surrounded by toys made of plastic and I genuinely can’t think of any toys I had that were mainly plastic. I humbly admit that kid that loved toys is still around. I mean I literally have two lego sets right next to me as I’m recording this in my room.      

I know, you’re probably wondering, “why should i listen to this?” or  “why should I care?” Totally fair. But to that I say, we are at a time right now where sustainable development is becoming a major facet in large corporation’s focuses. Public interest is shifting towards holding companies responsible for what they use to make their toys with and how they make them. People want to know that when they buy products for themselves or loved ones, they aren’t contributing to a negative force. Now I made this a podcast because I think that all of this is important to talk about and I think it should be in more casual conversation. I could’ve handed you a dense scientific article demanding you stop supporting all plastic toys, but that just doesn’t feel right. I’m hoping you can throw this in whenever you have a second so I can provide you avid listeners with some unbiased information about popular toy companies and a few of their products. Whether you’re worried the toys you grew up with might’ve been bad for the environment, want some dirt on a large corporation, looking for some info on a toy you’re buying soon, or just interested in an old beloved toy you played with endlessly, I’m here to hopefully shed some light on what’s going on behind the scenes. 

Now a quick disclaimer, this episode is going to go a little differently compared to the later ones as I’m going to take some time to explain some background information on the history of plastics and the toy industry as a whole so that when I mention stuff in later episodes, I won’t have to repeat myself again and again. This does also mean this episode might not be as product based as you guys would like, but I promise we’ll get there soon! And the stuff I’m talking about is interesting, I swear. 

Just to give you a little play by play for this episode, I’m going to talk about the history of plastics and when the toy industry adopted plastics as one of its main materials. I’ll give you a brief rundown of ABS plastics, then a quick overview for the following episodes, sound good? Cool, let’s get into it.

To understand what we’ll be talking about, I think it’s important to know where all this plastic came from and how it got involved with children’s toys.  

Way back in 1869, the production of billiards was increasing massively, but they were produced from ivory. As you smart cookies may know, ivory is not exactly a sustainable material and does come at the expense of killing an animal. As the increased demand for billiards started to put a strain on the ivory supply, billiard producers started to put out large rewards for anyone who could find an alternative material to create billiards with. This eventually led John Wesley Hyatt, an American inventor, to create the first synthetic polymer, by treating cellulose from cotton fibers with camphor. Hyatt’s original substance became known as celluloid, and was used to imitate natural materials such as tortoiseshell, horn, and ivory. 

Yes, you heard that right, the material that would eventually lead to modern plastic, was originally designed to replace natural materials coming from nature. Meaning its purpose was to prevent harming wild animals.  Ironic right?

Although it was not exactly the right material for billiards, it opened the door for manufacturing. 

By 1907, Leo Baekeland, a Belgian chemist had created the first synthetic plastic, known as bakelite. His original intention was to find a material that could be used as an insulator, as electricity was becoming more and more common. Not only was his bakelite a suitable insulator, but was heat resistant, durable, and easy to mass produce (not to mention it was extremely less flammable that celluloid). Other manufacturers saw the potential and went out to produce their own plastics. Worrying about producing a material before even having a use for it. Over the next couple decades, vinyl, poly-styrene, acrylic, and nylon were all invented and made their way into the daily lives of many people. Although this was a huge start for plastic, what really set off the movement was World War II.

Plastic was an extremely versatile material, perfect for mass producing more affordable equipment for the army. During the war, plastic production almost quadrupled. Soldiers wore new plastic lined helmets and water resistant vinyl coats. Pilots were protected in plexiglass cockpits and utilized parachutes made of nylon. 

After the war was over, all of the plastic manufacturers saw the endless profit plastic could bring them and they quickly adapted to keep the money coming in. They switched their products from military use to civilian use, and focused on making consumer goods for the public. This started a trend in creating new products or replacing parts of old items with now more affordable materials. Mechanical parts, furniture, jewelry, packaging, and you guessed it, toys. 

The toy industry seemed like a no brainer for many plastic manufacturers to switch to. The new material allowed them to create intricate and colorful pieces never seen before, perfect for children of all ages. Molds could be created to streamline production, making it easy to mass produce items more efficiently. On top of all of that, plastic was a relatively cheap material to use. Although it makes sense that the toy industry would serve as an outlet for hungry plastic producers, there’s still a couple factors that greatly contributed to the spike in children’s toys.

If we have any history buffs tuning in you probably realized that this new versatile material came just in time for the baby boom and conveniently after the great depression. With a sizable spike in children and people eager to spend their money again, the toy industry took off. Toy sales grew from $84 million to $900 million from 1940 to 1953 and by the early 60s, it was already in the billions. At the center of all this, plastics.

Many different types of plastic were used for children’s toys, but the one that I am going to focus on more closely in this podcast is acrylonitrile butadiene styrene. Due to the fact that that is a mouthful and I don’t even really know if I’ve pronounced that correctly, we’re going to abbreviate that to ABS plastics. Hope that’s ok with everyone. I’m not going to go into the specifics of ABS makeup, but I will provide some sources if you’re into the nitty gritty.

Why ABS plastics? Good question. ABS plastics is a popular plastic that has been utilized early on in creating toys up to today. As it has been a staple in the toy industry, I figured it can be an easy material to follow across different companies. As different plastics are manufactured and used in different ways, I figured it’d be a mess trying to follow all of them across the board, and following one should allow for an easy comparison between different toys.

Alright, only one more small history lesson. ABS plastic was originally patented by Borg-Warner Corporation in 1948 and was later released to commercial markets in 1954. ABS plastic has a wide range of applications as it is extremely resistant to corrosion and physical impacts. Its low melting point allows it to be a great material for injection molding and that is exactly what it sounds like; melt ABS down to a liquid form and inject said liquid into a mold of anything, car parts, kitchen utensils, instruments, and obviously toys. Once hardened to the desired shape, ABS plastics are very sturdy and can withstand even the roughest play from the average toddler. It’s what allows many modern toys to survive for as long as they do. 

Although this is great for users, this hardy material is not exactly environmentally friendly to make. I’m sure you are aware that producing plastics is harmful to the environment as they are derived from fossil fuels and ABS plastics are not excluded from that. Many of its components are processed from petroleum. Beyond that, the production of ABS itself does produce some nasty by-products. Solid, chemical, and water waste can all be left over after the production of ABS plastic.

I know that this sounds like I’m setting up to just absolutely rip into plastic toys, but I promise I’m not. Doesn’t mean I’m going to try and defend plastic and these toy companies from using plastics either. 

Actually, I think it’s important to distinguish the difference between single use plastics and multiple use plastics before I get into anything else. There is obviously a stigma against plastic as a whole, but there is a notable distinction between single use and multiple use plastics. Although multiple use plastics are seen as the better of the two, which I don’t necessarily disagree with, they do have their own problems. 

For starters, multiple use plastics end up using more resources during production and distribution compared to single use plastics. But, it is rather obvious that in terms of disposal, single use plastics take first place in being more harmful in this scenario. Due to this, I decided it’d be better to focus on the production and distribution systems toy companies have set up instead of the toys’ literal impact on the environment. Most of the companies I will be discussing also have created programs to work around their toys disposal, and don’t worry, I’ll cover those when we get there. 

I’m sure you are curious about who the “they” I have been talking about is which is fair, sorry about keeping you waiting. 

Three companies I have chosen to start this podcast off with are LEGO, Hasbro, and Mattel. I will be covering more companies in the future, but for now we got these three. I’m sure you are familiar with these companies or know at least one of their products. These three corporations are known for their toys, and all utilize ABS plastics. Instead of looking at all of their toys containing ABS plastics, I have chosen one from each company. With LEGO, lego bricks, with Hasbro, Nerf blasters, and with Mattel, Barbie.

Alright, now that that’s all cleared up I want to give you a rundown of what I’ll be covering in future episodes.  I want to hopefully paint a larger picture for you, covering what they are doing, and not doing, in terms of sustainability and the production of their products.

• I plan on covering the history of the company, where they started, potential values they have or preach
  • And more importantly how they became involved with plastics
• I want to see What their manufacturing looks like
  • How much ABS plastics they are producing annually
  • What their waste management, water footprint, carbon emissions, energy usage what all of that looks like
• I want to cover Commitments they have made to sustainability
• Practices they have
  • How they’ve changed to combat policy changes
• How much they are spending on sustainability
• And how this compares to their their budget/profit every year
• If they have any sort of carbon offsets and what that looks like
• On top of that I want to see how they present this information to the public
  • It is straightforward or confusing 
  • Is it just greenwashing or empty promises, you know what are they doing to back up what they are saying 
• Any partnerships they have
  • Whether they are positive or negative, or in line with sustainable values 

One thing I want to highlight is that I didn’t mention the lasting impacts of their specific products in the environment or in landfills. As I mentioned before, multiple use plastics’ most harmful stage is production. Pairing that with the fact that childrens toys are designed to be long lasting and not one use, I feel like it’s more important to look into how these companies are producing ABS.

Now I know I didn’t really get into the action this episode, but I wanted to give you all some background before I dove into the thick of it. Hopefully you now have a better understanding of why the toy industry switched to plastic and where all the plastic came from. I also don’t have to try and pronounce ABS plastic’s full name anymore, which is a plus. 

And again, I won’t be ruining or tearing any beloved childhood toys apart. You might not exactly like what you hear but I think realistically you had to have had some type of thought about how ur old plastic toys might not have been great for the environment. But just because you don’t want to hear it, doesn’t mean it isn’t something you should probably be paying attention to. 

As an environmental student, who still has an appreciation and sweet spot for toys I grew up with, I wanted to look into them and share what I found. Hopefully I helped someone else who was interested in a toy they grew up with as well. If not, I hope you enjoyed anyway. Next up on the docket, LEGO. 

See you next time and thanks for tuning in.

Hey everyone, this is Jack here. I want to welcome you all back to another episode of Green Toys. For anyone tuning in for the first time, this is a podcast dedicated to laying out the impact large toy companies that rely heavily on plastic have on the environment. 

As I mentioned in the last episode, today we’re starting our first dive into a toy company with Lego and their Lego bricks. It’s hard not to picture LEGOs when you think of plastic children’s toys, which is exactly why I felt like it was necessary to start off with them.

Now, before we get into anything they are doing today, I think it is important to understand their history, to see where they came from, ideals they picked up along the way, and obviously, when they switched to plastic bricks.

All the way back in 1932, a Danish carpenter named Ole Kirk Kristiansen started making wooden toys for his kids and other children in his town. The toys were not immediately a hit, but they slowly gained traction due to their high quality and craftsmanship. As Ole’s toy business started to grow, he realized he should probably come up with a name for the company. He eventually landed on the icon name we all know today, Lego. Lego stems from two Danish words LEG and GODT which together mean “play well”. Little fun fact that Ole was completely unaware of: lego in latin also means “I put together”. 

In the late 40s, Lego had become an established toy company and Ole started to look for new ideas for his toys. He was eventually shown a new molding machine that could quickly create plastic pieces. From the demonstration of the machine, Ole received a little plastic brick that he fortunately held onto. He purchased one of the molding machines and started to brainstorm the new toys he could make with it. Ole got an idea from the little brick he received from the molding demonstration and create “Automatic Binding Bricks” and before you get ahead of yourself, no, this clunky name was not the original name for Lego bricks, but the Automatic Building Bricks were essentially rudimentary Legos bricks. It wasn’t until Lego released Lego systems, that the automatic binding bricks started to become very successful. Lego systems created a new way for children to play with the bricks in a more structured way, as they emphasized larger scale buildings. (This is essentially the idea of lego sets we have today) Due to the endless possibilities these new sets introduced, it was better to have as many legs as possible. The more you have, the more you can build. Thus creating a demand to always have more.

 Shortly after, Lego created a new patent, for a brick that has cylinders on the bottom of the piece to allow better connections between the pieces. For any lego users, I’m sure you recognize this, but if you don’t, this is the design of lego bricks we know and love today. Along the way, Lego’s automatic binding bricks were eventually shortened to Lego Bricks. Which does have a much better ring to it, don’t you agree?

Throughout all of this, Lego used a couple different plastics, but like I said in the first ep, we are going to focus on ABS plastics here. Lego didn’t make the switch to ABS plastics until 1963, where they slowly started to phase out other plastics they were producing. By 1970, ABS plastic was the sole material Lego was using to produce their toys. ABS offered Lego a brick that was more durable and sturdy than previous plastics. 

From the start when Ole was creating in his woodworking shop, a value he always swore by was “only the best is good enough”. This value was carried through to LEGO and was adapted as their slogan. Let’s see if this slogan was carried through all this time, shall we?

Today, Lego is a private company still owned by the Kirk Kristiansen family and is based in Billund, Denmark. Last year, as in 2022, LEGO reported $9.5 billion in revenue, with $2 billion of that being their net profit on the year.  It is very difficult to estimate how many pieces lego has produced, but they estimate that they are creating 110 billion pieces a year. There have been over 150 LEGO themes with 16,000 sets. There isn’t an updated amount, but the last time lego revealed their estimates for the total amount of pieces they’ve produced was in 2008. And they guess it was around 400 billion, so you can only imagine how many pieces they’ve produced up to today. Although this is awesome for LEGO, I’m sure you are now realizing just how much plastic this means they have been producing as well. 

Now I just want to say again that I am not about to just hate on LEGO. I am going to discuss both positive and negative things LEGO has done and been doing. After it all, we’ll circle back and decide whether or not LEGO has been doing a good job and heading in a good direction. Hope that works with everyone. 

And I know I already mentioned this, but LEGOs are not designed to be single use toys, so I won’t be going into detail about their literal impact on the environment as they are not really meant to be thrown away. I want to shift that focus to other parts of their operations. 

The first thing I want to highlight is how accessible a lot of legos stats are. Lego provides fact sheets for almost all aspects of their business. Their annual and sustainability reports are all archived together and these are loaded with information. I’ve taken the time to read through all of them and I’ll summarize the important stuff I found. If you don’t trust me or want to take a look for yourself, I’ll include any document I mention in the channel page. I’ll get into the specifics in a little, but I first want to acknowledge the direction LEGO seems to be heading after reading everything they have been putting out in the past couple years. 

In the past decade, lego has shared that they have a couple goals that they would like to reach by the turn of the century. 

• They want to reduce their carbon emissions by 37% from their 2017 amounts, by the year 2032. Then have emissions at net-zero by 2050.
• They hoped to use all renewable energy across the board by 2020
• They want to switch all of their packaging to sustainable materials by 2025
• They want to switch all of their products from petroleum based materials to sustainable ones, by 2032.

I know, it’s hard to find a company that is not making claims and goals like this right now. And sure a lot of it can be greenwashing and it’s hard to see who is really making wholehearted commitments. Well, lucky for you guys, I have taken a deeper dive and have some more information that can help us pick apart the truth from the bullshit. 

Now, I want to start off with a little bit of the bad, and I promise it’s not too much, so we can end on a high note. For starters, the goal of reducing their carbon emissions 37% by 2032 and having net zero emissions by 2050, might be a little far fetched with their current projections. Lego’s emissions have stayed around the same rate for the past couple years and have even slightly increased since 2017, which is the amount they are trying to decrease from. Now I know that it is still a decent amount of time away from 2032 and especially 2050, but it is still a little concerning that they have not made any improvements, and even gotten a little worse. 

Another goal that might not make the projected time is having all sustainable materials by 2030. In September of 2023, Lego announced that it had to drop its main lead in a sustainable material made from recycled water bottles as a replacement for ABS. This again does not look too hopeful compared to the timeline they want to stick to. 

Now I know both of these don’t sound great, but when you look at both of these on a larger scale, these little hiccups really aren’t that bad. Sure, the projections and timelines they made do come across as being a little preformative, but it does seem like LEGO is setting these quick deadlines on themselves to really push LEGO to be a sustainable company. 

And if you’re a little confused on why I’m not too concerned with these setbacks, let me explain. Although LEGOs carbon emission levels aren’t looking great, a lot of their output is not coming from where you might necessarily think. Much of their carbon emissions comes from factors outside the Lego group itself, in fact almost 90% come from these sources. And what I mean when I say outside sources is facets like their distribution and gathering of raw materials. By no means is this an excuse as it is still stemming from LEGO, but considering this carbon is not coming from their factories or stores is a huge positive. And when you really consider the carbon emissions from distribution, it is hard to put that solely on LEGO. There just realistically isn’t the proper infrastructure in place for them to distribute their products in a way that would have close to no carbon emissions at this point in time. And in terms of the gathering of raw materials, they are actively trying to move away from this for their bricks. With everything in their control, LEGO is making great changes to decrease their carbon emissions.

 Now I know I said LEGO hit a little roadblock with the development of new sustainable bricks, but this also shouldn’t be a real concern. Lego did just admit they had to drop their main lead for recyclable materials to replace ABS plastics, but they still believe that they are on track to find a suitable replacement by 2032. Alongside the failed replacement, LEGO’s team states that they have around 100 other materials that they are working with right now that have potential to replace ABS. 

Alright if you were really paying attention, you might remember I mentioned that only about 80% of lego pieces today are made from ABS plastics. What is the other 20% made from? Great question. Lego has already started producing some of their pieces from Bio-polyethylene, we’ll shorten that to BIO-PE. BIO-PE is essentially a plastic that derives from organic material, which means the materials needed to produce it can be obtained sustainably. One of the main materials in BIO-PE is sugarcane, and LEGO swears they plant just as much as they cut down. These pieces are not as strong as ABS and therefore aren’t used to create all of their pieces, but it is just one way LEGO is demonstrating they are actively attempting to permanently switch their materials. If that isn’t enough to convince you, Lego also announced that they were going to increase their funding for finding a new sustainable material to $1.4 billion. 

So those were the issues that I saw while reading through all of their literature and I told you, it wasn’t too much. And even with that, LEGO is already combating these to work around them. Now that that’s out of the way, I want to share the positive steps LEGO has taken. 

• I mentioned that Lego was aiming to have 100% renewable energy by 2020, but they actually reached this goal by 2017. The lego group obtained a 25% stake of a wind farm in the Irish Sea. This means that all of their production facilities are now running on renewable energy.
• Their water efficiency improved 4.9% in 2022, and has seen a steady improvement the years prior
• They just invested in a new Billion dollar factory in virginia that is completely carbon neutral 
• They have already started to release products with sustainable packaging 
• And of all their waste, only 1% of it goes directly to landfills, while 90% of it is recycled. 

On top of all of this positive work, another program LEGO has that I want to highlight is LEGO replay. As I said early, LEGOs are not meant to be single use toys and are designed to last for many many years. But obviously kids don’t stay kids forever and they can outgrow their toys. With LEGO replay, kids can now donate all of their old LEGO bricks for other children to play with. This was a clever way for LEGO to take their toys being thrown away out of the equation. Since the start of this program back in 2019 over 1 million pounds of legos have been donated, which means over 1 million pounds of legos staying out of landfills. 

Lets circle back now and make a final assessment towards lego’s sustainability efforts. 

I think it’s reasonable to say Lego is doing what they can to become much more sustainable: reducing water waste, little to no waste going to landfills, utilizing renewable energy, and moving towards sustainable materials. 

The only problem I really saw is their carbon emission levels and some of their timelines towards their goals. 

• But at the end of the day, they are making changes that should help reduce their carbon levels. And in terms of their timelines, they do seem a little ambitious, but it does genuinely feel like they set them to push themselves to make change. They have already reached many of their goals they set to hit, so why not assume they can reach them all. 

Words like, “imagination”, “creativity”, “quality”, “caring”, and “sustainability” are all over their website and much of their literature. At first glance it’s hard to tell if this is just for appearance or if it’s real commitments. But after spending time looking into what they are doing and what they have planned for the future, it does seem quite genuine. LEGO is making huge strides, with an occasional setback, but they don’t let it slow them down. I think it’s safe to say LEGO still lives by Ole’s motto; “only the best is good enough” 

Now I hope I helped answer some questions you may have had or you learned something new. If not, above all, I hope you enjoyed. Next week we’ll take a closer look at Mettel, and Barbie.

See you then and thanks for tuning in. 

Hey everyone, this is Jack here. I want to welcome you all back for another episode of Green Toys. For anyone tuning in for the first time, this is a podcast dedicated to laying out the impact large toy companies that rely heavily on plastic have on the environment. 

As I mentioned in the last episode, today we’re switching our focus to another iconic kid’s toy that has recently gotten much attention, Barbie. Due to the fact that Barbie has returned to the spotlight, it seemed fitting to give her the next episode, so here we are. If you’re new, thanks for joining, and I’ll give you a quick rundown. We’ll first take a look into Mattel’s history as a whole, then narrow it down to Barbie specifically. This way we can see what values the company stands by and how Barbie came to be. After that, we’ll look into what they have been, and are doing now to see if they are making any attempts towards sustainability. And finally, I want to circle back and compare what they are doing to what we talked about last episode with Lego. I know this is a little different than last episode, but I think it can be helpful to compare and contrast what these two companies have been doing to get a better understanding. 

Now that that’s all squared away, let’s get into it.  

Back in 1945 Ruth Handler, Elliot Handler, and Harold Matson all started Mattel in a garage in Los Angeles, California. They were designers and engineers eager to create something together, so that’s exactly what they did. The name Mattel stemmed from Matson’s nickname “Matt” and part of Elliot’s name “El”, put together, they got Mattel. Although they were all excited to embark on this journey, Harold Matson was forced to step away from the company. He unfortunately didn’t get to stick around for Mattel’s success, but at least he got to say that his name was half of Mattel. Not really a win but it’s something.   

Mattel’s first hot items were picture frames and little pieces of furniture for doll houses. It only took them two years, in 1947 to create their first hit toy; the Uke-a-doodle, a little Ukulele made of plastic. As you might have guessed, Mattel from the start was utilizing plastic in much of their creations as they saw, like many others at the time, this new material’s limitless potential. Mattel would release other successful toys for the next couple years, all made of plastic, but it wasn’t until 1959 that they would reveal their new groundbreaking plaything; Barbie. 

Ruth Handler got the idea after watching her daughter playing with paper dolls, pretending they were adult women. Inspired by this, Ruth set out to create a doll for little girls, that would allow them to imagine and play out their futures. And with that, Barbie was born. Barbie was unveiled at the American toy fair in New York City and was immediately a hit. In its first year, Mattel sold 300,000 Barbie dolls. The original doll wasn’t made of ABS, but parts of it were switched to it by the 70s. 

Today, around 60 million barbies are produced annually, with sales reaching $1.5 billion in 2022, which accounts for a 5th of Mattel’s total revenue. Barbie has had over 250 careers and countless different themes. Although Barbie has inspired many over the years, I’m sure you can also start to see how much plastic this is. Today, each doll accounts for 182 grams of plastic and 660 grams of carbon emission, including both production and distribution. With some quick math we can estimate that each year Barbie dolls alone account for 10.9 billion grams of plastic and 39.6 billion grams of carbon emissions every year.

Before I get into some negatives, I want to share some positive things they are doing. And again, I’m not going to just tear apart Mattel and Barbie, but little disclaimer, there is a decent amount of bad to address. Definitely some good, but still.

And similar to LEGO, Barbie is not designed to be a single use doll, so I won’t be discussing her literal impact on the environment. Instead, I will be focusing on other aspects of her brand.

Now I didn’t want to mention this right away, but I think Barbie’s slogan is important to know to understand some of the sustainable programs launched behind her. Barbie’s slogan pays homage to Ruth Handler’s original intention for the doll. She created the doll to help inspire young girls to be anything they wanted. By creating a versatile doll that could be anything from a teacher, to an astronaut, to a scientist, it instilled in young girls that their future was theirs to write. From this, Barbie’s slogan was born; “You can be anything”. 

Mattel has used Barbie and the platform the doll created to encourage girls to follow their dreams and make a difference throughout multiple generations. Now, Barbie once again is using this platform to inspire a new movement. In 2021, Mattel introduced “Barbie loves the ocean” which was a new line of Barbie dolls and clothes that were 90% recycled ocean plastics. Along with this new line of dolls, they revealed,  “The future of pink is green” a new brand campaign associated with Barbie. This campaign aims at demonstrating Barbie’s steps towards becoming more sustainable. With the launch of this new campaign, Mattel released some new educational videos on “Barbie Vlogs”, a popular youtube channel associated with the doll, that teaches kids about the importance of sustainability and individual actions they can do to make a difference. 

In addition to all of this, Mattel started a collaboration with the Jane Goodall institute, a non-profit organization that does a lot of conservation and preservation work for primates and their natural habitats. In addition to this, Mattel also teamed up with Roots & Shoots, a Jane Goodall Institute program, which focuses on getting kids involved in making environmental change.  

 And a quick summary for anyone who doesn’t know who Jane Goodall is one of the world’s leading experts on chimpanzees, and her work uncovered the social similarities between primates and humans. To help the chimps she worked with and grew very fond of, she founded the institution in her name to protect their habitats.

Under Barbie’s new campaign, they created a Jane Goodall doll to announce the collaborations. Along with the Jane doll, Mattel also released a whole set of environmental themed Barbies. In the set there are four dolls, a Conservation Scientist, a Renewable Energy Engineer, a Chief Sustainability Officer and an Environmental Advocate. And of course, all of these dolls, their clothes, and accessories, were 90% recycled plastic. 

Another minor thing I want to highlight is that Mattel also announced their “Playback” program. Anyone here from the first episode might remember LEGOs replay program, which is very similar to the program Mattel released. For anyone not here, Mattel’s playback program allows kids to send their old Mattel toys, obviously including Barbie, back to Mattel and they will break apart the toys and repurpose their components. Now this is a great program, but unfortunately it was only started in 2021, so there aren’t really any numbers out to look into the success of the program, which means I can’t really comment on it, sorry. 

Just like how Barbie was originally created to inspire young girls to imagine anything for their future, they are now using Barbie to push the message of sustainability towards a younger generation. Although these are great initiatives towards sustainability, it still leaves many gaps and questions in terms of Mattel’s overall plan for Barbie. 

Before I dive into any specifics, I just want to discuss how Mattel presents their information and statistics. Although you can find much of their information, it is somewhat difficult to navigate their site to get to what you want. It feels like an endless cycle of clicking a “read more” button, until you’re ten levels deep, and finally at the information you wanted to find. 

Within this rabbit hole, they list some goals and strategies they have to reach more sustainable practices. Some of their goals that I want to highlight are;

• Having 100% recycled or bioplastic materials in all of their products and packaging by 2030
• Reducing their greenhouse gas emissions 50% by 2030 based on their 2019 levels
• And having zero manufacturing waste by 2030. 

Now don’t get me wrong, these are great goals to have and they would be amazing benchmarks to hit, but a lot of their current projections are a bit worrisome. 

First off, the information on their site they are currently providing for facets like, “energy consumption”, “greenhouse gas emissions”, “waste generation and disposal” come from the years 2019 to 2021. So as many of you smarties may realize, a third of these numbers are not going to be a great representation of their true practices. So yes, a lot of these values are lower, but that can easily be explained by the 2020 pandemic. Like energy consumption, for example, is down almost 15% from 2019 to 2020, but obviously during lockdown they would not have used as much power as they would have. Similarly, with their waste generation values they share that it went down almost 25%, but again don’t mention that this is realistically due to the pandemic. The 2021 values are all a little lower than the 2019 amounts, but this could still potentially be covid-related. To truly understand if Mattel is making considerable progress would be to compare to their 2022 values, which they do not provide on their site as of now. Of course if they do happen to release these values after I release this episode, I’ll either edit this one or create a new episode discussing that. But for now, with what they have on their site, it is hard to really say they are making legitimate strides towards their set goals, as a third of their numbers are essentially inaccurate. 

With all of these goals, they do list some strategies to help them achieve them. In these strategies they use phrases like, “optimizing their resources” and “develop innovative products”. They even list a couple products across the board where they are able to do this. One being the Barbie collection that is made from 90% recycled ocean plastic. But what they failed to clearly state is how they plan on incorporating these strategies to all of their toys, and especially with Barbie. They have released Barbie dolls that are 90% recycled material, but why aren’t they creating all of their dolls this way? And with that, why is only 90% of the doll from recycled material? Why isn’t it 100%? The Barbie dolls start to emphasize a larger problem within what Mattel is doing. Yes, they have made toys from recycled plastics, but what is stopping them from doing this with all of their toys? 

Taking all of this into consideration, I think it’s fair to say that Mattel’s practices in terms of sustainability pertaining to Barbie do come off as being rather performative. They created a new campaign centered around Barbie and caring for the environment. They used Barbie’s established platform to start a movement towards being environmentally friendly and to raise awareness as a whole. In addition to making dolls mostly made from recycled materials, they have been able to push this message of sustainability, but even with all of this, they still are falling a little short in terms of actually incorporating sustainability into their practices. A lot of what they are doing feels like it is just for appearance or just to check a box saying “we’ve made a toy made of recycled plastic” or “we collaborated with a nonprofit environmental group”. A lot of their literature also comes across in this way as well. They share their plans and sustainable targets they would like to hit, but seemingly fail to mention how they plan on doing so, or even if they have a plan in the first place. It again just comes across as being a little performative and almost like it is greenwashing. They are pushing the message of sustainability, and telling people how to be sustainable, but they aren’t really being sustainable themselves. 

Now this shouldn’t completely overtake what they have done so far. It is impressive they have been able to produce as many toys from recycled materials as they have and the initiatives they offer to promote sustainability to younger generations is impactful. And to be fair, this was the original purpose of Barbie as well. Barbie was designed to inspire young girls. Mattel is now just tweaking this inspiration to have it focus on sustainability. So considering this, in this sense, Mattel is setting up Barbie in a productive way in terms of sustainability.  

Now I know this might be a pretty big 180, but I want to circle back and compare Mattel and Barbie to LEGO and their bricks in terms of what they are doing or not doing. Now they definitely have their differences in what they are doing, but I think it’s important to highlight a few major points. I’m not going to go into specifics like who has worse carbon emissions, or produces more waste, so if you were looking for that sorry.

For the positive things they are both doing, it is almost opposite. 

So, you have LEGO who is actively trying to make sure they are producing a more sustainable toy through more sustainable practices. They are putting much of their time and resources into changing how their company runs as a whole, by researching a suitable replacement for all of their bricks, and investing in a new wind farm. So you can see how they are acting sustainably, but unlike Barbie, they aren’t pushing a sustainable message across to their audience. 

Now you also have, as we just discussed, Mattel, who is utilizing Barbie’s platform to push sustainability to a younger generation and educating them on sustainability. Yes, they have made toys made from recycled plastics, but they fall short in terms of implementing sustainability across all of their practices. 

So on one hand you have a company that is really focused on sustainable practices, and on the other hand, you have one that is focusing on pushing a sustainable narrative. It is interesting to see what some companies choose to focus on in terms of sustainability, but it doesn’t mean that what they are doing is bad, because anything pro-sustainability is good, at least in my opinion. Now I obviously do think that in terms of a more impactful system, LEGO might take the lead, I personally do believe it’s a little more important to be producing sustainably, as that’s what is literally impacting the environment. But this definitely still should not undermine the importance of pushing a sustainable message forward. Like Mattel is doing with Barbie. Both routes have their pros and cons and it’s important to recognize the positive momentum they both produce. 

Now one thing I really want to mention before I end this episode is why any of this is important, why you should take the time to listen to this or share it with your friends. These are totally fair questions by the way.

We live in a time where we’re all aware of the harmful effects associated with plastic and the push to use more sustainable materials. It’s hard to look around at items you have come accustomed to and figure out what needs to be cut from your life. I’m sure as you’re listening to this right now there is plastic within your reach. Now I’m not telling you you need to cut all plastics from your life cause that is not realistic. I mean the microphone I’m recording with and the computer I’m going to edit this on are both full of plastic, along with the chair and desk I’m sitting at right now. Instead, I’m proposing the importance of understanding the plastic you are using. Knowing if it’s single use or multiple use, whether it’s petroleum based or from sustainable materials, what else the supplier is doing in terms of sustainability. 

Now how does this all relate to children’s toys? Let me explain. The way I see it, I don’t think it’s necessary to completely stop buying all children’s toys made of plastic or stop supporting these brand names we’ve all grown accustomed to. I think it is more important to just know what the company you are buying for believes in, what their practices look like, and where they stand in terms of sustainability. Especially as a parent buying a toy for their child, you should know that when you give them a toy, the brand is pushing a sustainable message and can help inspire your child, or that one day the toy might be made from recycled materials. I guess all I’m trying to say is that you should know what you’re buying and where it’s coming from, and I’m trying to help you answer the what and where parts of that question. This also means that we shouldn’t just accept sustainable products, we should push companies to be better, to be more sustainable as a whole, to move away from destructive practices. 

Sorry for the rant, but just my two cents I wanted to share with you all. 

Now I know that this was a lot for one episode, but hopefully you learned something along the way. And if not, like always, I hope you enjoyed it.

See you next time and thanks for tuning in.