E-waste is one of the world’s most challenging environmental problems, gamers are one of e-waste’s largest contributors, as they don’t see the value in recycling their old tech.
Intel, a leader in gaming tech, wanted to show gamers their old tech still has value - so we went to one of the most popular games in existence, Animal Crossing. A utopic, zen paradise with a dirty secret. The rusted part – a useless piece of in-game e-waste that players consider trash. To show players this e-waste can be e-cycled into something of value, we created eCycleLand, Animal Crossing’s first in-game, e-waste, e-cycling center. Here we turned what was once trash… into treasure.
The eCycleLand launch was such a hit, gamers waited 22 minutes just to get in. Once there, they spent an average of 14 minutes exploring and learning about e-cycling. Other gamers also learned about ecycling by watching some of the top Twitch streamers engage on our island. The rusted part became so valuable, people started stealing them from eCycleLand. Some game developers even made e-cycling rusted parts a permanent part of the game. Ultimately e-cycleland showed gamers the value e-waste can have in our games and our world.