Rubik’s Cube, and other classic toys sold by toy maker Spin Master, have been redesigned to reduce their environmental impact, as part of an effort by Spin and rewrite Master to make their playthings more earth-friendly.

Spin Master, the fourth-largest toy manufacturer, is following the lead of the Big Three toymakers — Mattel MAT , Hasbro HAS , and Lego – plus taking steps to use more recycled materials, eliminate wasteful packaging, and to give parents opportunities to recycle old toys.

As part of that effort, Spin Masters product designers have found a way in order to make a Rubik’s Cube out of 100% recycled plastic, a breakthrough that is expected to lead to more use of recycled plastic material in all versions from the Rubik’s Cube, as well because in a wider assortment of Rewrite Master toys.

Toy makers are rushing to rein in their plastic-type footprint on the planet both away of the desire to be good corporate citizens, and because parents are demanding it.

“The demand for these types of items is growing, ” Tammy Smitham, vice president with regard to communications and corporate citizenship at Spin Master said in an interview. Spin and rewrite Master’s success in creating a 100% recycled Rubik’s Cube will lead in order to the development of recycled products regarding additional Rewrite Master brands, Smitham stated.

In addition to the recycled version of the Rubik’s Cube. called the Rubik’s Re-Cube, which debuted upon Amazon. com this month, Spin Learn also has recently released eco-friendly variations of traditional games like checkers plus dominos, since well as Gund plush stuffed animals made with reused materials.

Last year, The Toy Association, an industry group, identified the environment and sustainability as a top concern of parents, citing data from market research group The Insights Family. That information showed that 64% of U. S. parents associated with kids ages 3-9 were willing to spend more for sustainably sourced toys, and that two-thirds of all parents said they were actively taking steps to live more sustainably.

“This is a trend that’s just going to keep growing year after year, ” toy expert Jim Silver, CEO of the TTPM. com toy review site, predicted last year.

In addition to the recycled version of the Rubik’s Cube. called the Rubik’s Re-Cube, which debuted on Amazon. com this month, Spin Master also has recently released eco-friendly versions of classic games like checkers plus dominos, as well because Gund plush stuffed animals made with recycled materials.

Spin Master in 2021 launched a larger social responsibility campaign, called Playsponsible, using toys to promote interpersonal goals such as diversity, as well as durability efforts.

Three years ago it began the partnership with innovative recycling company TerraCycle to allow parents in order to mail within old Spin and rewrite Master playthings and packaging, free of charge, with regard to recycling. Mattel, Hasbro, and Lego have similar programs for mother and father to recycle or donate unused toys.

Diana Young, senior vice president of product development and engineering at Spin and rewrite Master, stated the company had been doing research regarding many years on “what type of components we wanted to use, what was actually impactful to the world, rather than just greenwashing. ”

The product development team decided that one associated with the best ways to have an impact would be to significantly reduce to amount of virgin, or non-recycled, plastic in its toys.

The particular Rubik’s Cube was chosen as one of the first toys intended for a green makeover because as a good evergreen, high-sales-volume product made almost entirely out of plastic material it was “just screaming out to us as an opportunity, ” Smitham mentioned.

The design team originally set a goal of making a good 80% reused cube, but discovered it had been able to overcome questions about material strength plus color in order to make a 100% recycled version associated with the plaything.

Matching the bright primary colors from the traditional cube has been a key challenge the team overcame, because of the different base colours of recycled plastic versus virgin plastic.

The learnings from the Re-Cube design process will allow Spin Learn to make use of more reused plastics within all variations of the particular Rubik’s Cube, as well as other Rewrite Master brands, Smitham and Young said.

One obstacle in the move to produce more sustainable toys is shortages associated with recycled plastics and other materials, Smitham said.

Spin Master acquired Rubik’s Dice in a $50 million deal in 2020. There have been more than 500 million Rubik’s Cubes sold since the toy debuted in the United States in 1980, along with annual sales estimated at 20 million cubes.