To ensure its confetti offering is more sustainable and environmentally friendly, MAGIC FX recently announced a new TÜV-certified confetti solution that biodegrades in soil within the norm of maximum two years, meaning that this essential part of a live show can be maintained without having an adverse effect on the environment.
“We believe that confetti is an essential part of any event or festival and always gets the party started!” began MAGIC FX CEO, Bram Veroude as he spoke to TPi about his company’s latest development.
With MAGIC FX getting its start as a fireworks company, safety has always been paramount – hence the company’s insistence that any confetti it uses is DIN4102-1 B1 flame retardant certified. “However, in recent years we have increasingly been asked if our confetti was biodegradable and if we also had a certificate for this, which we didn’t,” outlined Veroude. “In all honesty, we didn’t know. All we knew was that many people always thought that paper confetti was biodegradable, so we wanted to be sure.” After some research, the team found TÜV Austria to be the only organisation to offer biodegradable certifications in Europe.
Further enquiries revealed that the company’s old paper did not pass the initial tests and the material turned out to be harmful to the environment. “It turned out that biodegradable paper that was coloured and flame retardant simply didn’t exist,” stated Veroude. “So together with a major paper manufacturer, we have developed a new type of paper that is coloured, flame retardant and biodegradable.”
MAGIC FX also worked closely with TÜV to analyse the new product and ensure it passed the test, which requires a product to biodegrade in soil within a maximum of two years. “Our confetti biodegrades completely within nine months!” enthused Veroude.
“The last phase of the TÜV certification process was to grow new plants on the soil in which the confetti biodegraded and compare this with the same plants grown on clean soil. It turned out that there was no difference, and that was the last step to obtain the certificate.” MAGIC FX officially earned the certification in 2022 and since then has been able to offer this new product to the market.
“The environment and our future is something we’re all more aware of these days,” asserted Veroude. “At MAGIC FX, we’re constantly looking for innovations to keep up with current standards and we’re very serious about sustainability. The biodegradable confetti was a really big project for our team but we also offer biodegradable snow fluid and we switched to a gas-free factory with 300 solar panels to provide the necessary power.”
As well as being a core value for the company, Veroude expressed how the latest step MAGIC FX had made had been well received by customers.
“We’ve had nothing but compliments from around the world,” enthused the CEO. “Customers are now able to use confetti at locations that previously had not allowed it due to the negative effect on the environment. With the biodegradable confetti, it’s possible to celebrate events with confetti but in a responsible way.”
This article originally appeared in issue #275 of TPi, which you can read here.
Words: Stew Hume
Photos: MAGIC FX
