Atlas Games, the publisher of Ars Magica and Gloom, has stepped in to rescue hundreds of plastic magazine holders from a university library, diverting them from landfill to become tabletop game accessories.
The initiative follows renovations to the Kathryn A. Martin Library annexe at the University of Minnesota Duluth. As staff undertook the massive task of culling and moving the journals collection, they were left with a surplus of rigid plastic magazine holders. With the library downsizing its physical footprint in favour of digital formats, the equipment was no longer needed.
While the library staff, including Katie MacDonald, hoped to recycle the holders, the equipment’s age posed a challenge. The plastics lacked the modern identification stamps required for standard recycling collection. Testing revealed that the items were primarily Polypropylene and Polystyrene, materials that can be difficult to process through municipal wastewater systems.
Waste Management connected the library with Replay Workshop, a business based in Proctor, MN, that specialises in recycling plastics. Replay Workshop is a sister company of Atlas Games, manufacturing game components, including tokens and meeples, from recycled materials.
John Nephew, President of Atlas Games, explained the significance of the intervention in a press release.
A huge amount of plastic that could be recycled with relative ease winds up going to landfill simply because of the limitations of the recycling collection and sorting system. We’re delighted that we can keep these magazine holders from UMD’s library out of the landfill, and transform them into new and useful products.”
The salvaged plastic is being shredded, melted, and injection-moulded into new items. Replay Workshop produces accessories for direct sale and also supplies 1,000-pound bags of shredded plastic to other manufacturers, helping to close the loop on industrial waste in the tabletop sector.
Katie MacDonald noted the possibility that the materials could return to the library in a new form.
Working with Replay Workshop seemed like a really good opportunity. Given that the library also has a sizable games collection, you never know when those recycled plastics might come around again.”
For gamers concerned about the environmental impact of their hobby, from shrink-wrap waste to plastic miniatures, initiatives like this offer a glimpse into a more circular economy for tabletop games.
You can browse the Atlas Games catalogue, including their RPGs and board games, on DriveThruRPG and shop at Replay Workshop.
