NUK's major recycling initiative - discarded soothers, bottles and other items are given a new life as sand toys

The dummy monster is hungry

The baby product manufacturer NUK has launched a large-scale recycling initiative. Since June, dummies, baby bottles and plastic cups have been taken back free of charge throughout Germany and recycled in a circular way. It collects the so-called "NUK Soother Monster", because it "loves plastic" and thus saves the used baby products from incineration. In a special recycling process, sand moulds are then made from 100% recycled soothers, bottles and cups, which are raffled off to participants. There are currently collection points in over 550 childcare centres and at more than 100 retailers across the country. Private individuals can also take part from home and create a free parcel label at nuk.de/recycling to send in old products themselves. "The children immediately took the monster to their hearts. Every day they ask if the dummy monster is full yet and see how full the collection box is," says Cornelia Hänig, head of the Tausendfuß children's centre in Dresden. "The dummy monster makes sustainability tangible for the little ones, because the plastic collected together is later returned as colourful sand moulds."

Broad partnership from industry and trade makes the new cycle possible

The programme is being implemented together with various partner companies: The start-up HolyPoly from Dresden has developed the recycling process and is coordinating the campaign together with NUK. Interzero's"Collecting Dragon" provides its Germany-wide network of kindergartens that are already committed to environmental protection and education. BabyOne and the Zweimalschön charity shops of the German Clothing Foundation as well as two shopping centres in Leipzig and Bremen have set up dummy monster collection boxes in their shops. The toy manufacturer Gowi produces the recycled sand moulds. The entire process takes place in Germany.

Valuable plastics are saved from incineration

As soon as the soothers, baby bottles and cups arrive at the NUK recycling centre, they are unpacked, sorted by colour and type of plastic and shredded. The plastic is then washed, processed and tested in the laboratory for quality control. This ensures that the resulting sand moulds have a long shelf life and can be recycled at the end of their life.

"Unfortunately, dummies and the like normally end up in residual waste and therefore in the incinerator. The valuable material is irretrievably lost and the climate is polluted," explains Fridolin Pflüger, project manager at HolyPoly. "NUK is the first company in the world to create a high-quality cycle from toddler products back to toddler products. We assume that we will collect significantly more material than is needed for the production of the sand toys and will also use this in other high-quality products."

Recycling is worthwhile for everyone who takes part

In addition to the increasingly important conservation of resources and waste avoidance, the collection campaign aims to give something back to environmentally conscious children and parents: In addition to the sand moulds, each participating daycare centre receives points that can be exchanged for useful rewards such as toys, books or learning or craft materials in the Collecting Dragon shop. There is also the opportunity to win a recycling workshop for the whole centre, where the children can experience for themselves how it works to recycle plastic and make new useful items from it. 

The bigger the parcels sent in, the better for the climate: private individuals can therefore win a year's subscription to Etepetete's Fruit and Vegetable Mix Box Family in addition to the sand moulds for particularly full parcels.

Take part now for less plastic waste and more recycling

Daycare centres can apply to take part free of charge on the programme website until the end of November this year and order a dummy monster collection box. Private households can participate at any time from home and send in parcels free of charge via DHL. A list of public collection points and participating facilities as well as further information on the take-back system can be found on the NUK Recycling Initiative website: nuk.de/recycling.