A saleswoman of Shore Buddies talks with visitors at the company's booth at the 2020 Toy Fair New York in New York, the United States, on Feb. 25, 2020. Without his Chinese partner, it may not be easy for Malte Niebelschuetz to turn his inspiration of manufacturing plush toys from recycled bottles into reality. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)
by Xinhua writers Luo Jingjing, Xing Yue
NEW YORK, March 5 (Xinhua) -- Without his Chinese partner, it may not be easy for Malte Niebelschuetz to turn his inspiration of manufacturing plush toys from recycled bottles into reality.
"The only country able to make it happen was China. I always feel like China gets not enough credit for what they are doing," Niebelschuetz, founder and CEO of Shore Buddies, a toy company that provides stuffed animals made from recycled materials, told Xinhua in a recent interview.
Niebelschuetz was inspired a few years ago by an article about a company that provides outdoor jackets and T-shirts made from recycled soda pop bottles.
"I was so amazed that technology is even possible and it was like (my) entrepreneurial spirit kicks in," he said. "So, what else can you make from recycled plastics? It must be a million things."
Then with an eye on a stuffed toy, he said to himself, "If you can make a T-shirt, you can make a stuffed animal."
Starting from there, Niebelschuetz commenced his journey of wonder. He left messages on a platform of Alibaba, China's largest e-commerce service provider, to search for manufacturing partners, and was responded by an executive of a Chinese plush toy factory in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu province, one of the country's top industrial centers.
"I met this wonderful guy. We are the same age and he believed in the vision and helped move things forward," recalled Niebelschuetz. "His factory was like, let's bring this on, let's do this together and let's change the world together."
It took about nine months from the first contact between Niebelschuetz and his Chinese partner to get their first batch of products ready for shipment, and Shore Buddies became the first company providing plush animals whose "inside and as well as the outside all (made) from recycled plastics," according to Niebelschuetz.
"We did look into potentially producing elsewhere, like Indonesia or Vietnam. But they don't have the infrastructure yet to make an entire stuffed animal from recycled materials. Our factory and a few factories, all in China, are the only ones that can do the inside and outside," he said.
Each of Shore Buddies' classic 12-inch stuffed sea animals is made from six recycled bottles, and it takes two bottles to make a key chain. The company has also created a story featuring four sea animals, known as Shore Buddies and the Plastic Ocean, to help kids learn what they can do to help save marine life and keep plastics out of the oceans.
Since its establishment in 2015 in San Diego, California, Shore Buddies have sold some 500,000 stuffed animals.
Social awareness about the ocean plastic pollution and green manufacturing in the past couple of years helped boost the company's business expansion, enabling it to grow from 50 stores to some 700 stores in the United States alone since 2018, and to enter into a number of European countries, including Norway, Denmark, Germany, France, Belgium and the UK.
Talking about his dream, Niebelschuetz said there were around 500 million plush toys being sold around the world each year. "If they were all made from recycled plastics, that would take a lot of plastics out of the landfills, out of the ocean, and would really make a difference."
"Everyone should do it this way," he said.
A single purchase
