It has very much been on our minds that we’d like the Aethermon product lineup to be a force for good in the world, and a big part of that is not generating future waste – ideally after the natural lifespan of our products, we’d prefer them to break down and not create big piles of landfill. At the same time, tabletop games are a product designed to be physically touched and interacted with, ideally multiple times, and nobody wants to spend their hard-earned on something that will fall apart within a short timeframe.
Longevity vs. biodegradability. What to do?
We are currently right in the middle of Collect being manufactured, which is to say we have now made the manufacturing choices as to what goes in (and on) the box, and large un-sliced sheets of cards are shooting through the manufacturing machinery getting gloss coatings applied this very day (maybe not, it’s a weekend).
Some of our decisions oriented around the use of plastics. For example, even though cards are predominantly considered a paper product, many have a laminate coating applied to make them less susceptible to tearing (this also affects shufflability and overall tactile effect). While tear-resistance sounds great, laminating is plastic, and makes cards un-recyclable at the end of their life. Rather than choose this route, we have opted instead for an oil varnish which will reduce their susceptibility to damp but without the plastic use.
On the other hand, we are including an acrylic standee as a group token, which is obviously made from plastic. We carefully thought through this choice, bearing in mind quality, longevity, price, and customer experience. We decided that the value of a wipe-clean game piece that is being touched all the time, that can withstand a few scratches or the occasional chew by a dog, and that wouldn’t fall apart after being assembled and disassembled, justified the use of (not-single-use) plastic in this situation.
Some pro-environmental decisions were really easy for us to make – like using FSC-certified paper. Not only did our manufacturer, Hero Time, have this available, but they offer it as the default option, which we appreciated. They offered eco-friendly inks as their default too – fantastic both in reducing environmental impact and in reducing the negative respiratory (and other) effects on factory workers.
Arguably one of the most important decisions we made was which manufacturer to choose – the eco-friendly manufacturing options Hero Time offered as their standard was a huge influence on our choice.
Some decisions though have been much harder. It would be nice, for example, to be able to package our game entirely without single-use plastics: no shrink-wrap on the cards or the box, no bubble wrap or plastic shipping bags. It’s not that there aren’t options – like paper wrapping the cards inside the box, or using paper stickers to seal box lid and bottom.
But paper wrappers have a habit of inadequately protecting cards, especially those without an insert tray, and we’ve chosen no tray (trays are frequently – though not always – made from plastic, but they also limit people’s ability to sleeve their cards, which affects longevity).
And paper stickers to seal the box aren’t accepted by Amazon fulfilment, which is very likely where we will be selling our excess stock. I’m sure they have a good reason (I would guess this is to reduce customer complaints due to damaged goods) but it’s a pity all the same.
It’s hard to argue that board games are a necessity, but there are many gamers who consider anything other than absolute perfection of product an unacceptable compromise – especially when a large portion of that audience consider themselves collectors as much as players – boxes protected only by paper stickers are much more subject to scratches or smudges than those in shrink-wrap, to say nothing of water damage or insect nibbles.
We can’t assure customers of every single part of the supply chain, not when that chain includes factory, warehouse, transit container, next warehouse, trucks, handling, a postbag, and eventually a letter box or front doorstep. Customers do have a fair expectation that we have taken reasonable steps to protect their product. To make it trickier, choosing outside of the ‘normal’ (i.e. standard single-use-plastic) options are generally more expensive. On a small game, the profit margins aren’t exactly massive. Despite this, we’re planning on shipping as much as possible in cardboard boxes rather than bubble wrap and plastic bags.
If you’ve read this far it’s likely because you’re a board gamer who already cares about the environment. Thank you for that – frankly, same. I’m not sure we’ve got this all perfectly figured out yet, and I’d like to hope that our future manufacturing endeavours will be able to improve, both because we figure out how to be better, and because the companies we are working with offer more earth-friendly options.
If you’re in the process of manufacturing your own tabletop game, may I suggest a good start point for all these considerations is the Green Games Guide, which passed our metaphorical desks a few weeks ago at an ideal time for all these considerations. While I can’t say I agree with every suggestion, I definitely agree with the proposition that it behoves us as game designers to take care in the manufacturing choices we make.