Lego is abandoning an endeavor to make its colourful, iconic constructing parts from recycled plastic bottles just two yrs soon after very first saying just one of the central facets of its ongoing sustainability force. Even with the setback, the Denmark-centered business reiterated its motivation to cut down its in general environmental influence, and per the Related Push, even now aims to make Legos from sustainable materials by 2032.
Talking with CNN on Monday, a Lego spokesperson claimed the company’s comprehensive screening had unveiled that substitution needs more creation methods and financial commitment into new equipment would truly develop far more air pollution than Lego’s existing functions. The PET alternative also reportedly proved not as resilient or secure as present acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (Abs) blocks, and did not correctly match Lego blocks’ trademark “clutch electric power.”
[Related: Super Glue could make it easier to recycle plastic.]
The well known toymaker first declared a new block prototype centered on a recycled plastic bottle compound identified as polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in 2021—part of a task to changeover away from oil-centered plastics which began in 2018. Even in the prototype’s expose, however, the company cautioned it would be “some time” just before builders could assume a far more eco-friendly recycled brick to look on keep shelves. The system reportedly needed additional tests and progress just before relocating into a “pilot manufacturing phase” envisioned to take “at least a year.”
Sad to say, this pilot section appears to not only consider more time than anticipated, but in the long run are unsuccessful to create a feasible alternative for the oil-primarily based bricks. According to AP Information, Lego states it is “currently screening and acquiring Lego bricks created from a selection of alternative sustainable components, like other recycled plastics and plastics produced from choice sources such as e-methanol.” Created from hydrogen and captured carbon dioxide, e-methanol (aka inexperienced methanol) employs renewable energy to split water molecules all through its power creation.
“We imagine that in the extensive-phrase this will encourage enhanced output of extra sustainable raw elements, such as recycled oils, and assistance assistance our changeover to sustainable components,” the enterprise claimed by way of AP.
The backtracking arrives barely a 7 days soon after Lego CEO Niels B. Christiansen issued a assertion in advance of the UN General Assembly reaffirming their company’s motivation to climate sustainability. The pledge integrated an intention to make the company carbon neutral by 2050 alongside a $1.4 billion financial investment in “sustainability-linked activities.” The funding is reportedly earmarked for projects these types of as carbon neutral structures, raising renewable strength output and potential throughout Lego shops, offices, and factories, as well as partnering with suppliers to “collectively lessen environmental affect.”
But although Lego’s PET task seems to have strike a significant hurdle, the firm verified that a sustainable, sugarcane-derived edition of polyethylene called bio-polypropylene manufactured from sugarcane will nonetheless be made use of for certain elements of Lego sets, mainly accessory merchandise these as trees and leaves.
