Lego is spending millions to ditch oil-based plastics
Lego has invested $150m to build a sustainable materials centre to develop non-oil derived plastics as part of its plan to be free of ABS plastic by 2030.
The extraction and refinement of oil used in the process of making 60 billion Lego bricks each year is responsible for three-quarters of the company’s carbon footprint.
Lego’s new sustainable materials centre will be built in Billund, Denmark and is expected to be ready by the end of next year. It will have around 100 specialists working on developing materials and ways to manufacture the colourful bricks from recycled plastics, organic material or alternative raw materials.
In recent years the Danish toy manufacturer has invested heavily in managing its carbon footprint by reducing the packaging size, introducing FSC-certified packaging and investing in offshore wind farms. CEO and president Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, said that following on from this the company would be “accelerating our focus on materials”.
A spokesman for the Lego Group, Roar Trangbaek, said that the brand is “looking at every opportunity out there that's more sustainable than what we have today” and suggested that the strategy “might involve recycled plastics, though it's probably more likely to be something bio-based, because of the challenges of recycling”.
The company is working with non-profit groups and universities around the world to assess the environmentally friendly potential of any new materials from production through to recycling. Other companies, including those beyond the toy industry, are being invited to join the research centre.