The Biden-Harris administration, citing the scope of the plastic pollution crisis, wants to phase single-use plastics from federal operations by 2035.

The Biden-Harris administration is getting tough on plastic. The administration announced recently a goal to phase out federal procurement of single-use plastics from food service packaging, operations and events by 2027 and from all federal operations by 2035.

In a statement, the White House acknowledged the scope of the plastic pollution crisis, noting that “plastic production and waste have doubled over the past two decades, littering our ocean, poisoning the air of communities near production facilities and threatening public health.”

As part of the announcement, the administration also released an in-depth report, outlining the steps needed for a whole-government approach to addressing plastic pollution.

The plan to phase out single-use plastics builds on President Joe Biden’s 2021 executive order on catalyzing clean energy and his Federal Sustainability Plan, which directs the federal government to achieve net-zero procurement by 2050. “Meeting the new goal by selecting reusable, compostable and highly recyclable products in lieu of single-use plastics in food service will further agencies’ obligations under the executive order,” according to the administration’s statement.

Environmental groups were supportive of the administration’s announcement. “As the single largest consumer in the world, the US federal government has an outsized role to play in curbing the use of problematic and unnecessary plastic products,” said Erin Simon, vice president and head of plastic waste and business at the World Wildlife Fund. “The administration’s commitment to removing single-use plastic products across an entity this large goes beyond the positive environmental effects, sending a message to the public and private sector across the world: If we can make change happen at scale, so can you.”

The business sector had a mixed reaction. Ross Eisenberg, president of America’s Plastic Makers, a division of the American Chemistry Council, said in a statement that the White House and plastic makers share a goal of “preventing plastic pollution by creating systems that enable plastic resources to be used again and again,” but cautioned the administration that “prescribing alternative materials could work against its climate objectives as plastic often has a lower lifecycle GHG footprint compared to paper, metal and alternative materials.”

More than 460 million metric tons of plastic are produced each year, according to the U.N. Environment Programme, the bulk of it derived from fossil fuels. Waste from single-use plastic often ends up polluting land and sea, often breaking down into microplastics that have been found in the ocean and in human bodies.

There’s been growing momentum to tackle the plastic waste problem. More than 10 states have restrictions on single-use plastic bags, for example, and a number of large corporations have announced plastic packaging scale-backs: Amazon recently announced that it is 95% of the way toward eliminating plastic air pillows in packaging (with plans to do away with them completely by the end of the year). Not long before that, Google shared that it’s on target to have plastic-free packaging by 2025 – and published a 69-page document explaining exactly how they did it, in part to help inspire other companies on a similar journey.

For the promotional products industry, bans on single-use plastic can often be viewed as an opportunity to sell reusable alternatives, whether it’s tote bags, metal straws or drinkware.

More than just a fad, fidget-forward products are growing in popularity and functionality, with “pop-it” balls and spinner pens taking promo by storm.

At the height of the “pop fidget” craze of the COVID-19 pandemic, supplier High Caliber Line fulfilled an order of 400,000 poppers – a fidget toy made with silicone bumps that can be pushed in and out like never-ending Bubble Wrap – for a national drugstore chain.

“Kids are nervous when they go to these places,” says CEO and Founder Dan Oas. “They want to give them things to play with to keep their mind off things, particularly getting a shot.”

But it’s not just children who need a way to relieve the stresses of everyday life.

The prevalence of anxiety and depression symptoms skyrocketed during the pandemic, and even today, twice as many people in the U.S. are experiencing mental health symptoms compared to 2019, according to research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Accordingly, the demand for fidget toys – which have long been associated with aiding focus and easing anxiety – has spiked in the promo industry, reaching more than triple its 2018 popularity last year, based on ASI’s ESP search data. And they don’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.

“It initially started as a fun little novelty toy, and now it’s grown into something much bigger in regards to an awareness amongst society, and that’s what’s supporting it and feeding it,” says Brent Elenowitz of NY-based supplier Lincoln Line. “I think it’s just going to grow from here on out.”

When Fidget Spinners Were King

Just about everyone in promo remembers 2017 as the year of the fidget spinner.

The 3-inch toy spun to the top of the ESP search charts during its peak in summer 2017, staying in the top five from April to August of that year before ultimately being named ASI’s 2018 product of the year. But after the initial craze, many suppliers were left with excess inventory because of the dramatic drop-off in demand, Oas says.

The data reflects this lackluster interest among buyers, with ESP searches for fidget-related terms slowing and then plummeting to their lowest levels in 2020.

But “fidget” jumped back into the top 100 search terms in late 2021, which reflected both a resurgence of fidget toys in general and the next big thing in the fidget world: the pop fidget. ESP searches for the pop fidget skyrocketed by almost 30,000% between 2020 and 2021.

Popper Ball

While searches for poppers have slowed since their height in 2021 and 2022, they’ve maintained a longevity that the fidget spinner didn’t quite manage, Oas says. Part of that has come from suppliers transforming the product from its original flat shape into other forms, like the pop-it ball, or key chains featuring a few “poppable” bubbles.

“We just kind of keep doing more and keep adding different things,” Oas says. “The popper ball was really popular – that was a big winner last year.”

But suppliers say they’re noticing increases in fidget spinner sales as well. Lincoln Line is selling out its standard spinners left and right, Elenowitz says. ESP searches for fidget spinners almost doubled between 2022 and 2023, and the search term has remained in the top 100 search terms every month of 2024 so far.

Popper Notebook

“They’re things to keep you occupied so that you can take that energy, put it into there and then maybe focus your mental energy into whatever it is that’s going on,” Elenowitz says. “And I think that’s how these things help people.”

Are Functional Fidgets the Future?

A rising star in the world of fidget products might be the fidget pen, which has a spinnable piece near the top that users can play with while working or writing. Searches for fidget pens – or spinner pens, as they’re often known – shot up 600% between 2022 and 2023, with levels in 2024 set to outpace that.

Counselor Top 40 supplier SnugZ USA launched a spinner version of its Curvaceous Pen last year after a manufacturer suggestion, and it’s consistently sold in the top 10 of the company’s writing instruments every month since, says Brandon Brown, vice president of marketing.

Spin-It Stylus Pen

When SnugZ started giving out the spinner pens at the office or to distributors at trade shows, recipients were “fidgeting with them without even knowing they were fidgeting,” Brown says.

“We knew we had a hit,” he adds.

The increase in sales of the fidget pen is reflective of a larger trend in the fidget – and promo – market toward functional items, rather than just another “thing,” Oas says. That extends to other products, like the Iconic Pop Fidget Bottle from Elemental Bottles, which features a pop-it strap as a handle.

Water bottle with popper strap

Elemental Bottles launched the product in 2022, when the popper craze was still at its height, says Seth Inyang, co-founder of the supplier. The target market was kids, with a 14-ounce bottle, but Elemental soon had distributors and retailers alike asking for the product in larger sizes to keep up with demand.

“Turning it into a functional piece took it away from just being the fad,” Inyang says. “Nobody’s buying fidget pop by itself unless it’s been reinvented into something, but they’re buying more and more of the water bottle to this day.”

95% of southern end-buyers plan to increase or maintain their spend on promotional products in the next year.

ASI’s exclusive research reveals client buying habits in eight markets and across multiple demographics.

ASI Research has launched a new series profiling the people distributors work with most closely: end-buyers. Each week we’ll release a new data set that spotlights one of eight markets and looks at end-buyers through demographics such as gender, region and company size.

This week, our research focuses on end-buyers in the South, the third of four regions throughout the United States.

According to Census data, about 130 million people live in the South, making it the most populated region of the U.S. Top industries include healthcare, retail and manufacturing, and emerging industries are aerospace, film and urban farming.

According to ASI’s 2023 Ad Impressions study, the five most influential promo products for consumers in the South are outerwear, performance wear, polo shirts, writing instruments and health and safety products. New 2024 end-buyer research shows that when purchasing promo, South end-buyers are slightly more likely to buy T-shirts and buttons/lanyards than other regions.