Kinder Eggs – Can you recycle the plastic in the middle?
I do like Kinder eggs, and have to confess to having my own little collection of Despicable Me toys. However, it got me wondering whether the toys and the yellow eggs they come in can be recycled. I inspected the toys and the egg, but there were no plastic symbols to identify the plastic. I asked Kinder if they could tell me what plastic they are made of and if they could be recycled. The following response was received:
We have been investigating this with the Kinder team. The capsule is made from Polypropylene and this can be recycled, however we would advise to always check first with your council to advise which plastics they take that can be recycled.
Of course we would never advise to throw our toys away, however due to the different materials used they cannot be recycled.
On one hand it is great to know that the egg is made of Polypropylene (plastic number 5) and I can recycle it in my local collection (albeit not everyone’s). It would have been better for it not to be made of plastic at all. However, I was most concerned that the company had not considered the disposal of their toy and sent them the following response.
Thank you for returning my e-mail. It is great to hear that I can recycle the plastic egg. However, a nice as it would be to keep all the kinder toys, this is just not practical or realistic. Would you to consider making the toys from materials that can be recycled or composted?
Update
Kinder said they would pass my comments onto the team for their consideration. I guess we will have to wait and see if my comments were taken on board.
If you would like to see this changed, I would urge you to also contact Kinder: consumers.uk@ferrero.com