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The Lego Group backtracks on its oil-free toy bricks initiative, citing higher carbon emissions from recycled material. CEO Niels Christiansen highlights challenges in finding a sustainable alternative to their oil-based plastic.
Lego will no longer follow through with its scheme of making its toy bricks oil-free. The Danish toymaker abandoned this sustainability project as its carbon emissions increased instead of going lower.
The company explained it discovered that its new material made from recycled bottles had a bigger carbon footprint, which means higher carbon emissions. Many companies are searching for sustainability, and Lego apparently failed with its own venture.
According to The Financial Times, the plastic bricks toymaker announced in 2020 that it tested a prototype brick that was formed using recycled plastic bottles, which substituted the oil-based Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS), which is said to be currently being used in around 80% of the billions of pieces the company produces per year.
Lego’s chief executive officer, Niels Christiansen, said that using recycled polyethylene terephthalate (RPET) bottles they tested as a substitute would produce higher carbon emissions throughout the bricks’ lifetime, so the plan has been deactivated.
The Denmark-based company said that rather than the RPET, it will just try to improve the carbon footprint of ABS over time. The firm admitted this material requires about 2 kilograms of petroleum to manufacture 1 kilogram of plastic.
Meanwhile, Energy Portal reported that Lego’s decision to continue with oil-based plastics shows the difficulties of transitioning from conventional plastic materials to sustainable alternatives.
“In the early days, the belief was that it was easier to find this magic material or this new material that would solve the sustainability issue,” Lego’s CEO said. “But that does not seem to be there. We tested hundreds and hundreds of materials. It’s just not been possible to find a material like that.”
Photo by: Xavi Cabrera/Unsplash
