If you were worried that your LEGO addiction was in any way depleting the world’s oil reserves in the creation of all that plastic, be assured…so was LEGO. Via The Verge, in a pretty (literally) sweet development, LEGO are now going to be using plastic that’s plant-based, made from sugar cane. For now, it won’t be every brick — just the specific pieces based on botanical elements like trees and shrubs. The Knights Who Say Ni would surely approve.
LEGO calls the bricks “sustainably sourced” while acknowledging that there is no one agreed-upon definition for that term, so they define it for themselves as, “to a high degree determined by its source, chemical composition, its use (in a product) and management (at end-of-life), and the impact it can have in both environmental and social areas. The LEGO Group believes a new sustainable material must have an ever-lighter footprint than the material it replaces across key environmental and social impact areas such as fossil resource use, human rights and climate change.”
Tim Brooks, Vice President, Environmental Responsibility at the LEGO Group, says that the new plastic will have the same properties as the old, and that neither kids nor parents should notice the difference…aside from the fact that they’ll know in advance which is which, because you told them it was plant pieces, of course. The LEGO group is targeting 2030 to be a zero-waste operation, which sounds optimistic, but since LEGO can do pretty much anything, we’re not going to be too skeptical.
Everything except not be painful when you step on it, natch. Does this make you more likely to buy LEGO? Tell us in comments what you think.
Images: LEGO, Warner Bros.
Don’t step away from these other LEGO tales:
- Infinity War spoilers in LEGO sets?
- The Addams Family set that needs to happen.
- AÂ LEGO Lord of the Rings pinball machine.
