In a weird way, the packaging is one of the best bits about MTG. This may sound odd on the surface, but cracking packs, regardless of the set, is a true joy. There’s just something about the rustle of plastic required to crack a pack that immediately invokes an emotional response.
Unfortunately, as fun as it is to crack packs, doing so can generate a lot of waste. Anyone who has cracked a full Play Booster box, or even a Collector Booster Box, will know this all too well. Despite this being known for literal decades, Wizards of the Coast has done little to overhaul this pervasive problem.
Now that it has almost been a decade since Wizards tried something new, some MTG players are tired of inaction. Maybe it’s time for Wizards to be environmentally conscious as well as socially conscious.
Perpetual Packaging
No matter how you engage with MTG, you’re bound to encounter plastic waste very quickly. If you’re cracking packs, there will obviously be a lot of wastage there, but the alternative isn’t faultless either. Pointing out the pervasiveness of the MTG packaging problem, Reddit user proonjooce recently noted the waste associated with secondary market sellers.
“Every time you buy cards they come in little plastic sleeves and toploaders and then there’s all the sleeves you put on your own decks which eventually get worn and broken and you have to replace them, especially if you do a tournament and you need brand new sleeves etc.
Long-term the amount of sleeves you throw away or the amount of sleeves you accumulate which you hang on to but will probably never use and then eventually will get thrown away is kinda gross.”
proonjooce
While sleeves may seem like a rather small issue in the grand scheme of MTG, proonjooce isn’t wrong about the constant waste. Given the value of many MTG cards, sleeves are practically mandatory for most players, and they’re hardly a one-time purchase. Not only do you need to buy more routinely, but you’ll also accumulate them through making purchases.
In what will become somewhat of a running theme, this is, ultimately, a necessary evil. While you can technically play without sleeves, the protection that they provide is invaluable. Scuffing a sleeve will cost pennies to replace, but damaging a card like Sheoldred, the Apocalypse is literally costly.
This protection is even more invaluable when buying cards that have to be shipped to you. If you bought a near-mint card, you’ll understandably want it to still be near-mint when it arrives at your door. Technically, a cardboard and fabric sandwich may keep a single safe, but sleeves are the most affordable and scalable option.
As proonjooce went on to note, while the packaging of MTG cards is an issue, it’s not easy to stop. As a consumer, the only 100% effective option is to stop buying new cards entirely, but that’s not feasible. Thanks to all the new sets coming out, if you’re not continually buying new cards, you’ll often be left behind.
A Drop in the Bucket
Ultimately, as proonjooce stated, the environmental impact of throwing away a few sleeves is nothing in the grand scheme of things. No matter how hard we try, major corporations will pollute endlessly more than a single person could ever manage. That doesn’t mean we can’t strive for better, however. Should we want to do that, there’s a lot of work left to be done.
In a truly ideal world. Magic: The Gathering cards should be recyclable. Thanks to the various glossy coatings, glues, and the blue core, MTG cards aren’t widely recycled at the moment. The most Wizards has done recently is make booster packs recyclable at WPN stores, but that still leaves you with mountains of draft chaff.
If Wizards really cares about being environmentally conscious, making MTG recyclable would be a massive step in the right direction. Admittedly, this isn’t a small ask, as the material science this change requires would be immense. As we all know, MTG cards have a certain feel, and compromising on that is a very risky game.
An easier step for Wizards to take may be updating the packaging of packs to a paper-derived alternative. Technically, this has already been done, as Wizards created paperboard booster packs for Modern Masters 2015. Unfortunately, there’s a reason these booster packs haven’t been seen since.
Not only were there some concerns about the condition of cards inside of paper packs, but tampering was a major issue too. Due to the glue used, packs could be unsealed and resealed without major evidence of tampering. Despite having the major upside of being fully recyclable, these paper packs haven’t been seen since.
What Can Be Done?
Thankfully, while MTG cards and packaging aren’t fully recyclable yet, Wizards aren’t sitting around doing nothing. As lupin-san and ChiralWolf noted on Reddit, Wizards has made some positive strides recently. The packaging of Commander decks, bundles, and prerelease kits, for example, have all seen significant improvements recently.
Between recyclable paper-based boosters for land packs in bundles and reduced plastic elsewhere, it’s difficult to say Wizards doesn’t care. That said, the bottom line of MTG is always going to have an influence over environmentally conscious ideas like this. As nice as it would be to have MTG be fully recyclable, Hasbro is unfortunately still beholden to its investors.
As a result, I wouldn’t hold your breath and expect to see immediate change, even following mild community outcry. At the end of the day, it’s going to require an obscene amount of work and money to make this happen. Sadly, those efforts don’t really promise a return on investment either, as it’s just the right thing to do, not the most profitable.
Sadly, since Wizards is unlikely to make major changes any time soon, it’s rather difficult to be an environmentally conscious MTG player. The best option available right now is to just buy singles, since that generates a lot less waste than cracking packs. As good as it is to help the environment, however, don’t let it ruin your enjoyment of this hobby. So long as MTG isn’t making you dump barrels of oil into the ocean, you’re doing just fine.
