About our ECO range
Introducing our new ECO Range
As part of our ongoing efforts to find ways to reduce our impact on the planet we are proud to introduce the first items in our new ECO range. Our brand new Rattle and Stack Blocks and our Musical Instruments are the latest addition to our ECO Range. These are created using bioplastic with Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified packaging that is also free from plastic. We will continue to launch more items in our ECO Range later this year. Shop the ECO Range here.
Frequently Asked Questions:
What is bioplastic?
Bioplastics are a family of polymers made of renewable and/or biodegradable materials instead of fossil fuels (1).
Bioplastics differ from conventional plastics in that they are biodegradable, biobased or both (2).
Biobased means that the material or product is either in full or in part derived from biomass (plants) and biomass used to produce bioplastics may be from wheat straw, corn, sugarcane or similar (2).
Tiger Tribe bioplastic:
Our ECO range of products are created with at least 70% bioplastic. The type of bioplastic is known as PLA (polylactic acid)(3) which is biobased. The raw material comes from wheat straw. It is an agricultural by-product of the wheat harvest that can be broken down to extract lignin, an organic polymer that, when combined with sugar, forms a bioplastic.
Why use bioplastics instead of non-bioplastics:
• Biobased plastics reduce consumption of fossil fuel resources. Renewable resources are regenerated annually with the plant matter absorbing carbon dioxide during growth (2).
• Some bioplastics are also biodegradable, typically including PLA, however it can be misleading to describe a bioplastic as biodegradable as in many cases very specific conditions need to be met in order to achieve degradation which often requires access to industrial composting facilities (4).
Can Tiger Tribe bioplastic items be composted?
Home Composting Australian Standard AS 5810-2010 specifies rigorous standards which items must meet in order to be certified home compostable. Our bioplastic is not certified home compostable as it does not biodegrade in home compost conditions within the testing timeframe.
Can they be recycled?
Bioplastic is not able to be recycled with other plastic materials. However we take every care to be creating products that are of the highest quality so they are built to last. When your family has finished playing with our toys, we hope that you will pass them along for someone else to enjoy.
All items in the Tiger Tribe ECO range is packaged in materials that are 100% paper. This packaging is recyclable via the regular paper recycling stream.
What does the ECO symbol on the front of the packaging mean?
The ECO icon is not an official accreditation or third party endorsement of our products’ environmental credentials. It is our way of highlighting the items in our range where we have taken extra care to consider the environment when developing the product. Each item bearing this icon has further details on the product packaging and website regarding raw materials and product sustainability.
What other environmental credentials does the ECO range have?
Packaging
Our ECO range uses no plastics in any part of our packaging. Paper materials are mostly FSC certified or made from recycled cardboard. We are working towards 100% of the range being packaging in fully recycled materials by the end of 2023.
As packaging is made from cardboard and paper it can be recycled in line with other paper items.
Crayons
Our ECO Crayons are made with natural soy and beeswax, with colours made from 100% natural, non-petroleum based pigments.
Find out more about our approach to sustainability here.
1. https://docs.european bioplastics.org/2016/publications/EUBP_environmental_communications_guide.pdf
2. https://bioplastics.org.au/bioplastics/bioplastics-explained/
3. https://www.twi-global.com/technical-knowledge/faqs/what-is-pla
4. https://www.european-bioplastics.org/bioplastics/materials/biodegradable/