The gaming industry sits in a weird place when it comes to perception. It is a huge business, one that has some weight to throw around when it wants to make its voice heard. On the other hand, many still see gaming as literal child's play and blame it for society's problems. Some would argue that it's time for those in charge of gaming companies to truly consider the role they play in the world at large. Fortunately, some are doing just that. Like the way UK headset suppliers ABP and A4T committed to removing all plastics from their packaging.
There's been a lot of debate recently over the use of plastics and its effect on ocean wildlife. For many, the first thought is to write off the effort as useless and turn it into a joke about drinking straws. At the ABP and A4T offices, however, everyone agreed it was something that demanded action.
“In the first half of 2017 it quickly became apparent that the whole office was hooked on David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II," recalls Sales Director Paul Carrington. “Our collective love for this program definitely led to us genuinely beginning to consider how we could help. We knew there was a lot of plastic in our packaging, so the potential was there to make a difference."
The companies are behind the officially-licensed 4Gamers PlayStation headsets and third-party STEALTH headsets, so they ship a lot of units. Reducing their plastic use would have a good deal of impact on stopping plastic from making it to the ocean. They committed to the seemingly-impossible goal of eliminating all plastic from their packaging by end of 2018. At the same time, they agreed that it wouldn't affect quality at all. Customers would not be given inferior product just because of this initiative.
"We had a multitude of things to consider: from stickers to cable ties, inner trays and hooks — and while each seemed like a small change, we soon realized they would amount to a significant reduction in landfill waste or worse still, ocean-bound plastics,” said Carrington.
ABP and A4T went through several designs and sustainable alternatives. They even threw prototypes out second-story windows to test durability. All of these efforts eventually led to now, in 2019, where they can say packaging is totally 100% plastic-free. They report that they will save 60 tonnes of single use plastic from being wasted this year.
This action makes ABP and A4T the first companies in gaming to go plastic free. The goal now, according to Carrington, is to convince others to do the same. When thinking on the future, he said “Sixty tonnes becoming six hundred tonnes, that’s the dream.”
Source: Little Big PR