Denmark’s Lego, whose iconic plastic bricks have a worldwide audience, is struggling to make them more environmentally-friendly, having pledged two years ago to find a way to wean itself off petroleum-based ABS plastic for its product.
Earlier this month, the company officially gave up on its attempt to substitute recycled plastic bottles made from rPET plastic because it found the process created more CO2 emissions, used lots of energy, and is soft enough that it requires even more additives to make a strong brick. Tim Brooks, the Lego chief for the product, said it was like trying to build a bicycle out of wood.
The company says it will continue to search for new materials to meet its goal of having its bricks all be ‘green’ by 2030, and is working with numbers of non-petroleum plastics made from materials such as sugar cane or wood. Lego also sponsors ‘Replay,’ a program to collect unwanted bricks, clean them and distribute them to new users rather than recycling the plastic.
