How Green is LEGO?
It is Earth Day on Thursday 22nd April, and it made me think how green LEGO is, and are the LEGO group doing anything regarding sustainability
What is Earth Day
Earth Day has been going since 1970, and their mission is to diversify, educate and activate the environmental movement worldwide. on the 22nd April they will have their second Earth Day Live digital event, with workshops, panel discussions and special performances. The theme this year is Restore Our Earth. You can learn more via their website
What are LEGO Doing?
Sustainable Bricks
LEGO goal is to make LEGO bricks from sustainable sources by 2030. According to their Sustainability page “a sustainable material must be responsibly produced, using renewable or recycled resources, generating little or no waste, use sustainable chemistry and be fully recyclable at the end of its life, while meeting our high standards for safety, quality and durability.”
At the moment around 2% of parts are made from sustainably sourced polyethylene. It is around 80 parts out of 3,600.
Sustainable Packaging
A lot of the packaging involved with LEGO products contains single-use plastics, and LEGO plan is to make all packaging sustainable by 2025. You can read more on their Sustainability page
One noticeable change was LEGO stores phasing out single use plastic retail bags and replacing them with recycled paper bags.
in 2017 LEGO started using recyclable paper-pulp trays in advent calendars instead of plastic trays to reduce landfill waste.
Also the recent Vidiyo minifigures have come in a cardboard box rather than the usual single use plastic packaging used for the CMF series.
LEGO Replay
A new scheme available only in the US and Canada at the moment. All about passing along bricks that aren’t being used. According to the Replay website page over 136,078 kg of LEGO bricks has been donated, and 42,350 children are playing with donated bricks.
Reducing CO2
As a company LEGO are balanced with 100% renewable energy due to their investment in offshore wind in Germany and the UK. They have saved 1,300 tonnes of CO2 annually by switching to LED lights at their Mexican factory, have installed more than 3,500 solar panels at a factory in Czech Republic, and introduced a new cooling system at their Danish factory which minimises the need for a refrigerant-based system and reducing CO2. You can find out more on their Reducing our CO2 impact
Zero Waste
LEGO’s 2022 ambitions are:
Zero waste to landfill by 2025
Working towards a circular economy
Launch LEGO replay in 3 countries
Learn more about these ambitions on their Zero Waste page
What Can We Do?
One of the best things about LEGO bricks is the fact a brick from 30 or 40 years ago is compatible with a brick made today. It is a toy build to last, and not a toy which will get thrown away.
So if you buy LEGO for your children and wonder what to do with it when they stop playing with it, here are a few options
Store it until they come out of their dark ages, and want to build again. A lot of people come back into the hobby and it is great to rebuild your childhood LEGO
Donate it to a local charity or community organisation. At Brighton Bricks we have donated LEGO to a refuge for local domestic abuse charity RISE
If you are going to sell it, you can sell it as a big job lot, or you can sell them set by set. You will get more money for selling them as individual sets but it is more time consuming.
If you have any suggestions or comments regarding this topic please let me know. You can contact me via social media ( I am @BrightonBricks on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram ) or email me at nick@brightgreenpenguin.com