Eco-friendly and fully bio-based. These are the toys of the future. Not only last year Lego, the world\u2019s largest toys manufacturer, said it would spend 1 billion Danish krone (\u20ac135 million) to develop new sustainable materials for its plastic toy bricks and packaging materials, but also other players, such as Unga Toys in the Netherlands and Bioserie, based in Hong Kong, are researching and developing revolutionary ways in which bioplastics are used in toys. Their products are among the very first fully bio-based durable consumer products in the world that are able to offer the same level of performance, design and consumer experience compared to non-biobased and far less sustainable alternatives.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s not all: in late 2015 the Italian biotech company Bio-on launched the Minerv PHA Supertoys project, which aims to demonstrate that specific, ecosustainable and completely biodegradable formulations can be created for making toys that are safe for children and the environment, without losing out on the end product\u2019s functionality and aesthetic. Last June the company led by Marco Astorri announced a new collaboration with Italeri S.p.A., a production and distribution leader in the modelling sector. Thanks to this agreement, the manufacture of scale models will be done for the first time with the special grade Minerv PHA Supertoys, the new type of bioplastic developed.<\/p>\n
The bioeconomy, then, becomes part of the daily lives of our children. The Lego Group believes a new sustainable material must have an ever-lighter footprint than the material it replaces across key environmental and social impact areas such as fossil resource use, human rights and climate change.<\/p>\n
The manufacture of scale models will be done for the first time with the special grade Minerv PHA Supertoys, the new type of bioplastic developed.<\/p>\n
According to J\u00f8rgen Vig Knudstorp, Ceo and President of the Lego Group, \u201cthis is a major step for the Lego Group on our way towards achieving our 2030 ambition on sustainable materials. We have already taken important steps to reduce our carbon footprint and leave a positive impact on the planet by reducing the packaging size, by introducing FSC certified packaging and through our investment in an offshore wind farm. Now we are accelerating our focus on materials.\u201d<\/p>\n
The investment results in the establishment of the LEGO Sustainable Materials Centre. The centre is based at the Lego Group\u2019s headquarters in Billund, Denmark, and include all current functions and employees working to find alternative materials. The company has already hired 100 engineeers to work on this challenging ambition and is making good on its promises. The centre is collaborating and developing partnerships with relevant external stakeholders and experts.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur mission \u2013 LEGO Group owner Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen says \u2013 is to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow. We believe that our main contribution to this is through the creative play experiences we provide to children. The investment announced is a testament to our continued ambition to leave a positive impact on the planet, which future generations will inherit\u201d.<\/p>\n
Waiting for the bio-based bricks, Bioserie has already launched bio-based toys. In 2015, the company launched its first three baby toys \u2013 stacker, rattle and a teether \u2013 made of 100% biobased bioplastic. Made from annually renewable resources, they contain no petrochemicals, coating or paint and are dishwasher safe. They are the first and only products in their category to have obtained a 100% biobased certification by USDA\u2019s BioPreferred program.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe that our main contribution to this is through the creative play experiences we provide to children. The investment announced is a testament to our continued ambition to leave a positive impact on the planet, which future generations will inherit\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cBioserie toys \u2013 the company based in Hong Kong claims \u2013 contain 0% oil-based chemicals, because our raw materials are derived from plants, not oil. We also do not add any oil-based chemicals during the manufacturing process to enhance the performance or color of our product, because we developed our own manufacturing technology to achieve the performance level we need without resorting to any oil-based chemical enhancers\u201d.<\/p>\n
Even the coloring materials they use are specially developed for biopolymers; they are based on sustainable raw materials and meet several global industry and composting standards, including EN 13432 (European Union), ASTM D6400 (USA), BPS GREENPLA (Japan) and DIN CERTCO (Germany). \u201cFurthermore, we don\u2019t just assume those oil-based toxic chemicals are not there, our products are tested and certified by trusted third parties to be free of any oil-based chemicals\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Eco-friendly and fully bio-based. These are the toys of the future. Not only last year Lego, the world\u2019s largest toys manufacturer, said it would spend 1 billion Danish krone (\u20ac135 million) to develop new sustainable materials for its plastic toy bricks and packaging materials, but also other players, such as Unga Toys in the Netherlands […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[5847,5796,6406],"supplier":[2904,2247,2728,2160,5585,12086,3643,12715],"class_list":["post-38075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-bioplastics","tag-biotechnology","tag-environment","supplier-bio-on","supplier-biopreferred","supplier-bioserie","supplier-din-certco-gesellschaft-fuer-konformitaetsbewertung","supplier-european-union","supplier-italeri-s-p-a","supplier-lego-group","supplier-unga-toys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38075\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38075"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=38075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}