Why Games Workshop Should Care More About Recycling Plastic Sprues
It's no secret that most plastic Games Workshop model kit's come with a shed of excess plastic. I have a drawer full of old sprues that I'm just itching to get rid of. However, I firmly believe it's important to recycle and, in the hobby, it's certainly nice to have an excess of materials and bits. As such, I try not to get rid of anything I might need.
That being said, the sprue pile is getting high and it got me thinking a bit. Surely this stuff is recyclable, right?
The Problem
In truth, it's not quite so easy. Throwing away your sprues in a standard recycling bin or generic trash/rubbish receptacle will almost-certainly insure that it is incinerated (or worse, put in a landfill). Games Workshop plastic is actually made up of high-impact polystyrene (or HIPS) which is rarely ever facilitated by your run-of-the-mill recycling plants, requiring a facility with the correct setups and equipment to make use of this kind of plastic.
In fact, it's very possible that filtering GW's particular flavour of plastic and then shipping it to somewhere it can be dealt with, could produce a higher carbon footprint than just burning the stuff, though I'm no ecologist and this would vary highly on geographic location. Another issue is the cost, higher costs mean lower incentives, recycling is a business and there are budgets to balance. Without giving political implementation to this article, I doubt the UK Government would take it upon themselves to deal with the issue, though that is another discussion entirely I won't get into.
The Solutions
There aren't many solutions that don't involve direct intervention from Games Workshop themselves but that being said, there are still solutions to help minimise plastic wastage from our favourite hobby.
Only Buy What You Need
Now, obviously this is going to be a pretty futile point but here me out. How much unpainted plastic are you currently hoarding right now? Supply and Demand dictates that for each model you buy, one will need to be produced. Logically, you could just buy the models as and when you are to paint them. Obviously, Games Workshop directly prohibits this with it's time-limited hoards that it immediately feeds to scalpers but I digress.
Maybe just hold out on that unit of Bladeguard until you're ready to paint them up, though I won't fault you. Plastic is a hell of a drug. Perhaps get your fix elsewhere? (Segueing...)
Buy Models From More Eco-Friendly Alternatives
Now, without going into the community outrage with the recent IP Policy changes, maybe a soft-boycott, as generally implied by the previous point, would help the issue. You can keep your HIPS usage down without outright quitting the hobby cold-turkey.
The 'Orc Forge Lord' from Creature Caster. I honestly love the look of this guy. Maybe it comes from being a Doomfist main back when Overwatch wasn't shit.
Maybe take a break from Games Workshop. There are a handful of third party model-makers, like the folks over at Creature Caster, who make fantastic-quality models that also incorporate recyclable plastics without losing durability or quality. (Not sponsored. Believe me, I wouldn't shut up about it if I was.)
Get Creative
While you're perfectly in your rights to drive down to your local recycling plant and hand over your mound of plastic squares, make sure to check on google if you have one near you that can actually facilitate them.
Alternatively, you can get Creative! Perhaps your sprues could be utilised as boards and panels for an Orky stronghold to use as terrain (or some particularly cuboid Necrons). The possibilities are endless! Above is a video of Midwinter Minis doing just that!
He looks a bit bashed up now and he was painted over a year ago so he's certainly not the best looking since I've improved greatly since then. Just ignore him and look at the sprue-chunk by his left foot, isn't it pretty?
I, myself, utilised pieces of sprue back when I first assembled and painted my Black Templar Intercessors (See image above) to give the impression of old marble bricks or debris from some ancient pillar. It didn't turn out too great but certainly looks a bit more interesting than an empty base. Perhaps something like that would help you slowly frack Mount Sprue.
Incentivise
Games Workshop needs to do something. Switching to a more eco-friendly plastic is one of the first things I think of. Obviously, just looking at a sprue will show you that there is some semblance of space management and efficiency put into their design. Games Workshop certainly aren't looking to waste plastic. Plastic is money and that brings me to another possible solution which is incentivisation.
Giving the community a reason to bring back their sprues would help the environment by cutting down on individual trips to the correct recycling plants, as well as the aforementioned landfill and incineration issue. Perhaps offering store credit at a certain £/kg ratio to bring the business back to them would incentivise us to help out the environment, while also bringing business and foot traffic to the numerous Warhammer stores.
How Can I Help?
Now, while I believe the burden of solution lies on Games Workshop, and I have touched lightly on what you can do above, there are a few things you can do to help right now!
Sign The Petition!
Claret Gurnell set up a Change.org petition to encourage Games Workshop to at least have a think about possible solutions. As of writing this, the solution stands at just under 11 thousand signatures! Joining the swarm will hopefully put a bit of pressure on GW to reconsider their environmental blowback (though they don't seem to be the most receptive of customer feedback right now so probably not...).
That being said, I know it's not the most interesting thing to think about and appreciate your patience if you made it this far. I have a few ideas in the pipeline going forward including a weekly showcase of various homebrew forces in our lovely community, as well as a rework of my Primaris Vanguard Veteran Tutorial as I feel the first one didn't do the process or the models justice. Keep an eye out for that.
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