Games Workshop Announces Sprue Recycling Plan

I must confess this news is one of the most unexpected articles I have seen on the Community site yet. Today Games Workshop has announced a new plan to help gamers recycle their old sprues and paint pots. I am not going to dip into any politics here but I have often wondered if the empty sprues were recyclable and felt a tad guilty about the amount of plastic that gets thrown away. I hadn’t ever considered the paint pots at all, which is kinda embarrassing given how quickly I go through them. Before this point your only other option would be to try and find ways to incorporate sprues into new models as planks or bricks, etc.

Here’s how the system is set up:

How does it work?

The scheme is simple – bring in your used sprues and empty paint pots, deposit them in the sprue bin at one of the participating stores, and we’ll take care of the rest.

What can I recycle?

Any old sprue of plastic Warhammer models, with or without components still on it. You can also hand over old plastic Warhammer models, as well as empty Citadel Colour paint pots. The paint pots should be empty of liquid, but don’t worry about cleaning them. The old acrylic paint residue can all be recycled too.

What can’t I recycle?

We aren’t able to recycle metal or resin miniatures. Also, this isn’t a general plastic recycling bin – we can only accept items whose chemical composition we are sure of, so no non-Games Workshop plastic miniatures or other plastic items please

What happens to the sprues, paint pots, and old miniatures?

These will all be recycled into new materials and products. The plastic used in Citadel miniatures is of a very high quality and purity, so there are loads of uses for the recycled material elsewhere in the plastic chain, including garden planters, playground equipment, or even table tennis tables!

Because Citadel miniatures require such high-quality materials, we’re not yet able to turn old sprues collected from stores back into new models – though we are investigating that for the future.

When will it come to my store?

The initial trial will be kicking off in a small number of UK stores from the end of March. And, all going well, we plan to roll the scheme out to more stores and regions soon.

List of participating Warhammer stores:

Belfast Birmingham Brighton Cambridge Canterbury Carlisle Exeter Ipswich Glasgow Lincoln London (Tottenham Court Road) Kings Lynn Manchester Newcastle Norwich Nottingham Oxford Plymouth Reading Rotherham Salisbury Sheffield (Central) South Shields Southampton St Albans Swansea Warhammer World York

(These are all UK locations so far, but I imagine this program will spread.)

The Warhammer Recycling Programme will begin in these locations at the end of March – so hold on to your old sprues, paint pots, and unwanted plastic miniatures! If you show up before the scheme opens, you’ll just have to take them home with you…

Conclusion:
I think this is a really great idea, and one that is long overdue. Recycling programs have been controversial in the past, but since GW is the one running it I have faith they know how to reused these old materials. I am not going to pretend that these programs will provide any long term savings to players, although they may help GW save a bit on materials costs. I think this program could be ag reat way to drive players to store locations while also giving hobbyists a way to shed that backlog of plastic that is just sitting around.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments!

And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!