LEGO To Phase Out Single-use Plastic Packaging

The Danish toymaker stated in a press release on Tuesday that the brand new luggage will start showing in LEGO bins beginning in 2021, as a part of a $400 million funding into sustainability initiatives over the following three years. The baggage have been in growth for the previous two years.

“We obtain plenty of letters from kids asking why we nonetheless use single-use plastic in our bins, which impressed us to start to make this transformation,” stated Tim Brooks, vice chairman of environmental duty at LEGO. “That is a part of our ambition to make all our packaging sustainable by the top of 2025,” he added.

The LEGO Group, which benefited from a surge in sales throughout lockdowns as extra individuals of all ages purchased units, makes use of about 5,000 metric tons of plastic a yr to field its merchandise, accounting for 10% of its whole packaging. A a lot larger downside is the LEGO items themselves, which require 90,000 metric tons of plastic a yr to make.

LEGO has been working for years to develop alternate options to petroleum-based plastic that can be utilized in its blocks. Some progress has been made, however the overwhelming majority of particular person items are nonetheless made with plastic.

Sustainably produced LEGO bricks should be equally protected, sturdy and technically sound because the plastic selection, with similar colour fastness and compatibility with older bricks, Brooks instructed CNN Enterprise.

Items have to be sturdy sufficient to click on collectively and maintain elaborate constructions in place, resembling this £350 ($450) Hogwarts Castle, whereas being straightforward sufficient for a kid to drag aside, he added.

Discovering environmentally pleasant alternate options to plastic, which is a serious polluter of oceans and water sources, is important to tackling the world’s climate emergency as a result of it’ll assist tackle greenhouse fuel emissions from the manufacturing of products we use daily, resembling automobiles, garments and meals. A examine within the journal Science printed in July discovered that even when the world minimize plastic air pollution 80% by 2040, there would nonetheless be about 710 million metric tons of plastic waste contaminating the atmosphere.

However for a lot of firms, appropriate replacements are arduous to seek out. For instance, Nestlé (NSRGY), which used 1.5 million metric tons of plastic packaging final yr, stated in January that it plans to pay more for recycled materials to be able to encourage new suppliers to enter the marketplace for used plastics which might be appropriate for meals packaging.

LEGO stated on Tuesday that it’s working with analysis institutes and different companies to seek out supplies which might be as sturdy and prime quality as plastic.

The corporate goals to make all its merchandise from sustainable supplies by 2030 and stated it’ll improve its use of “bio bricks,” resembling these produced from plant-based supplies like sugar cane, which at the moment account for round 80 of its 3,600 items, or about 2%.

“We’re in a plastic air pollution disaster and all firms want to scale back their plastic use,” stated Emma Priestland, international company campaigns coordinator at Break Free From Plastic, a world foyer group whose members embrace Greenpeace and The Sierra Membership.

“Whereas it is nice to see an organization going through as much as the hurt brought on by their single use plastic packaging and taking motion, LEGO’s whole enterprise is predicated on plastic so they should go the additional mile to essentially be sustainable,” Priestland added.

LEGO stated it’ll broaden LEGO Replay, which allows prospects to donate used bricks to kids in want, to Canada and one different nation past the US by the top of 2022. Virtually all prospects surveyed by the corporate choose to carry on to their LEGO units or cross them on themselves, in line with Brooks, who stated that bricks made right this moment nonetheless match these made 4 a long time in the past.

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