By Allison Watkinson
TLL Reporter
MGA Entertainment, Inc. has announced it will be producing its L.O.L. Surprise! spherical packaging using sustainable materials beginning in April.
MGA Entertainment is the largest privately-held toy company in the U.S. The company primarily creates proprietary and licensed consumer products and entertainment across a variety of categories.
The sustainable and biodegradable materials used in the new packaging include bamboo, wood, sugar cane and other natural materials, in place of plastic.
Launching with the first of these sustainable spheres is the all new L.O.L. Surprise! Earth Love collection, just in time for Earth Day. The collection features two new sustainability-focused characters named Earthy B.B. and Grow Grrrl.
The launch of L.O.L. Surprise! Earth Love toys supports the company’s goal to spark conversations about the environment and sustainability among families. The new dolls come with gardening accessories and can be found exclusively at Walmart.
By Fall 2022, the company plans to transition about 65 percent of their L.O.L. Surprise! plastic balls to the new sustainable packaging at all retailers internationally.
As a result of this packaging update, it is estimated that about 45 million L.O.L. Surprise! toys will be produced with sustainable packaging, representing at least three metric tons of plastic eliminated from the toy line in 2022 alone.
To address the current plastic spheres, MGA will continue their partnership with TerraCycle to accept and recycle plastic L.O.L. packaging.
Terracycle is a private company that runs a global volunteer-based recycling platform. The platform is designed to collect non-recyclable pre-consumer and post-consumer waste to turn it into raw material that can be used in the creation of new products.
In 2019, MGA committed to two crucial sustainability goals to reduce their carbon footprint.
The first goal was to achieve and maintain 95 percent recycled or FSC-certified content in the paper and wood fiber used in their products and packaging by 2025.
The second goal was to reach 100 percent recycled, recyclable or bio-based plastic materials in their products and packaging by 2025.
“MGA is committed to sustainability and eco-friendly initiatives, and we are proud to take this monumental step with our new L.O.L. Surprise! Earth Love toys, with many more to come,” said MGA Entertainment Founder and CEO, Isaac Larian.
“In 2019, we made a commitment to work toward making our toys more sustainable by 2025 and with this launch today, we are taking a big step toward this promise, hoping to set an important precedent within the toy industry that directly affects our future leaders.”
Other sustainability steps that MGA has taken include new products, content and office management strategies.
In Poland, MGA teams changed Cozy Coupe floorboards’ color to black in order to minimize waste and enable the use of recycled material.
The Poland sector also uses boxes made from 100% recycled cardboard and recycles 100 percent of its production scraps. It has also introduced a Go Green line of toys that are made of 92.3 percent recycled materials.
At MGA’s California headquarters, all plastic water bottles have been replaced with water filtration systems; utensils, plates and supplies are bamboo or recycled paper products; and employees are encouraged to drive electric cars by offering free charging stations.
While the company has taken many different steps toward these goals over the last two years, the launch of sustainable packaging for its top-selling L.O.L. Surprise! toy line is the largest to date.
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