What are Yoto Cards made from?Updated 22 days ago

How Yoto cards work, what they are made from and why we chose those materials

First things first, what are Yoto Cards?

Yoto cards are credit card sized cards that allow you to play audio on one of our players or your phone (via the Yoto app). 

When you slot the card in the top, the audio starts playing. And when you take the card out again, the audio stops. 

Yoto cards contain an NFC chip (similar to security tags on some items you see in stores) that has a special ID number that tells your player that a particular piece of audio should be played. You can also use the NFC scanner in your phone to play the content on a card (find out how here).

The player can then decide whether to download that piece of audio, so it can play it from local memory, or stream it using the Wi-Fi connection of your player (e.g. if it's a radio card).

Note: punching holes in the cards, bending the cards, or otherwise damaging the cards will likely damage the NFC chip. If a Yoto Card is damaged and stops working, you can use Make Your Own cards to make a copy, as detailed here.

What are Yoto Cards made of?

Yoto cards are made from ABS and PETG. These are two types of plastic that are very durable and hard wearing. 

ABS is a very common type of plastic found in consumer products, and is used for the printed layer.

PETG is what bottle tops are made of, so it is very flexible and durable. This material is used as the protective outer layer that goes over the printed layer.

Why these materials?

We know that Yoto Cards need to be hard wearing, so they can be used for a very long time by families. We would love to be able to use something like paper or card, but at the moment, we have not been able to find a material or process that gives us the durability we know we need.

So, wherever our materials are for a single use, we make every effort to not use plastic. All of our packaging for players and cards is cardboard, except for a thin protective skin that the player comes in to protect the outer surface. This is currently plastic, but will soon be made from a compostable material!

And wherever our materials cannot be anything else but plastic, we design them to have a long life so the utility from every gram of material can be maximized.