Sony Interactive Entertainment discussed in a blog post how they have turned green with the packaging of the new PlayStation console.

Let’s quote Kieren Mayers, the director of the environment and technical compliance: „Over the last 50 years plastic use worldwide has increased around twentyfold, but recycling rates remain low at around 9%. This has contributed to increased pollution of the world’s oceans […]. That’s why, in 2020, Sony Corporation established the “Green Management 2025” plan following on from its launch of the “One Blue Ocean Project”. This includes a commitment to eliminate plastic use in newly designed small product packaging by 2025 and reduce the quantity of plastic packaging by 10% for other products.

[…] The PlayStation 4 peripheral packaging, such as the DualShock 4 wireless controller, we used around 70% recycled PET plastic for display windows and hanging hooks within our North and South American and European markets where these recycled materials are readily available for local bundling. To meet the ambition of Sony’s new commitments, we decided to go further for the launch of our Play5tation 5 product offerings. The materials used for the PlayStation 5 console and accessories packaging are designed to be fully recyclable, and depending on the product, PS5 packaging per unit is between 93-99% plastic-free overall (by weight),” Mayers wrote.

Here are the improvements they made: „Designing packaging to be fully recyclable, avoiding expanded polystyrene or plastic trays by using card inserts and paper pulp cushion trays, replacing plastic cable ties with paper cable ties, eliminating plastic protection bags used for cables and instruction manuals where feasible, substituting plastic display windows for closed card boxes for PlayStation 5 accessories, and incorporating folding, rather than glued, hanger tabs to the outer packaging.” This year, they will also test including polypropylene, recycled from post-industrial waste, to be used in European game cases.

According to the post, they now have „new global resource-efficient packaging design guidelines (covering resource use, recyclability, plastics use, chemicals in inks and adhesives, and use of recycled materials) developed and implemented with the active involvement of our design engineers, marketing, and operations teams.” All of this is part of Sony’s Road to Zero commitment.

Source: SIE