Ethan Clarke
LEGO has been working to make its products more sustainable. In 2021, the company unveiled a prototype brick made from recycled plastic. However, in 2023, the company abandoned its efforts to make bricks from recycled plastic bottles, citing higher carbon emissions over the product's lifetime as the reason for the switch. This decision highlights the complexities of sustainability, as companies must consider their entire carbon footprint, including scope 3 emissions, which encompass supply chain and consumer-use emissions. Despite this setback, LEGO remains committed to sustainability and is working to incorporate more bio-based and recycled materials into its products.
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What You'll Learn
Lego's sustainability efforts
Lego has been making efforts to become more sustainable by reducing carbon emissions and promoting global action on climate change. The company has partnered with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to achieve these goals. Lego has also committed to investing up to $400 million over three years to accelerate sustainability and social responsibility initiatives. This investment will cover long-term investments and ongoing costs.
Lego has also been working to phase out single-use plastic bags used in their boxes to package loose bricks. They aim to make all their packaging sustainable by the end of 2025. In 2021, they began trialing Forest Stewardship Council-certified recyclable paper bags in their boxes. Lego has also been transitioning to more sustainable materials, such as bio-polyethylene (bio-PE), made from sustainably sourced sugarcane. They are also working to remove single-use plastic from their packaging and achieve a "zero impact" target.
In addition, Lego has been sending 93% of all factory waste to be recycled, including 100% of plastic waste from their molding machines, some of which is reused in their manufacturing. They have also set a 2025 ambition to make all packaging 100% sustainable and remove single-use plastic from all their products, packaging, and operations. They plan to ban single-use plastic from all offices, factories, and stores. Lego has also been working to make their business more circular, improve energy efficiency, and expand on-site renewable energy production. In 2016, the company announced that it had balanced 100% of its energy use with energy from renewable sources.
Lego has also revealed a prototype Lego brick made from recycled plastic. This prototype uses PET plastic from discarded bottles and is the first brick made from a recycled material that meets the company's strict quality and safety requirements. The company is committed to playing its part in building a sustainable future for generations to come and wants its products to have a positive impact on the planet.
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Recycled plastic prototype
Lego has been working on creating more sustainable products and reducing its carbon emissions. In 2021, the company announced the development of a prototype LEGO brick made from recycled plastic. This prototype was the first brick made from recycled materials to meet the company's strict quality and safety standards. The plastic used in the prototype, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), was sourced from recycled bottles. On average, a one-litre PET bottle provides enough material for ten 2 x 4 LEGO bricks.
While the prototype was a significant step forward, Lego recently announced that it would not be moving forward with producing bricks from this recycled plastic. Despite more than two years of testing, the company found that the PET prototype did not reduce carbon emissions. Lego remains committed to finding sustainable solutions and has invested over $1.2 billion in sustainability initiatives. The company is currently exploring other alternative materials, including other recycled plastics and plastics made from e-methanol, a sustainable alternative to oil-based plastic.
Lego's journey towards sustainability includes other initiatives, such as removing single-use plastic from its packaging and introducing recyclable packaging across its business. In 2018, Lego began using bio-polyethylene (bio-PE), made from sustainably sourced sugarcane, for some of its elements. The company is also transitioning from polypropylene and low-density polyethylene bags to paper-based bags, which have been verified as recyclable in the EU, US, and Canada.
The development of recycled plastic prototypes is not unique to Lego, and many companies are exploring ways to incorporate recycled materials into their products. For example, BASF's ChemCycling project focuses on recycling plastic waste through thermo-chemical processes to create new raw materials. This process has been used to create products such as a plastic front-end carrier prototype for an electric SUV and a polyamide film for food packaging.
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Packaging and recyclability
Lego has been working to improve the sustainability of its packaging. The company has introduced recyclable packaging across all areas of its business, from core products to licensed products produced by partners. Lego's boxes are made from responsibly sourced cardboard and can be recycled where the infrastructure exists. In some cases, a Lego box may contain smaller boxes made from non-corrugated fiberboard and/or paper-based bags inside. These bags are made from over 95% paper and have been verified as technically recyclable in the European Union, the United States, and Canada. Lego has also started using paper-based packaging for its baseplates, which were previously wrapped in single-use plastic.
Lego is in the process of switching from single-use plastic to paper-based bags. The company has stated that it will gradually replace bags made from polypropylene (PP) or low-density polyethylene (LDPE) with paper-based bags. The new paper-based bags will have a thin plastic coating on the inside to ensure they are fit for purpose and to protect the product. However, the company acknowledges that some of its packaging still contains single-use plastic, and it is working towards removing it.
Lego encourages recycling and provides consumers with guidance on how to responsibly dispose of their Lego packaging. The rules for recycling vary between countries, regions, and municipalities, so consumers are advised to check with their local authorities on how to correctly dispose of recyclable packaging.
In addition to its efforts to improve packaging recyclability, Lego has also been working on making its products more sustainable. In 2020, the company announced it would begin removing single-use plastic from its boxes. Lego has also started producing elements from bio-polyethylene (bio-PE), made from sustainably sourced sugarcane. These elements are perfect for making smaller, softer pieces such as trees, branches, leaves, and accessories for minifigures. However, bio-PE is not currently suitable for making harder, stronger elements such as the iconic Lego bricks.
Lego had previously worked on a project to make bricks from recycled plastic bottles, but it was abandoned in 2023. The company found that using non-oil-based materials would require additional materials and energy to meet the durability and quality standards of its existing bricks. As a result, the production of bricks with recycled plastic would have led to higher carbon emissions over the product's lifetime. Despite this setback, Lego remains committed to finding sustainable solutions and continues to explore alternatives.
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Transitioning from single-use plastic
In 2021, Lego unveiled a prototype brick made from recycled plastic. The prototype used PET plastic from discarded bottles, specifically one-liter plastic PET bottles, which provide enough raw material for ten 2x4 Lego bricks. This was the first brick made from a recycled material to meet the company's strict quality and safety requirements. However, in 2023, Lego abandoned the project, citing higher carbon emissions over the product's lifetime as the reason for the transition away from recycled plastic. Instead, Lego aims to make each part of ABS more sustainable by incorporating more bio-based and recycled materials.
Lego has also been transitioning away from single-use plastic in its packaging. The company has introduced recyclable packaging across all areas of its business, from core products to licensed products produced by partners. Lego boxes are made from responsibly sourced cardboard and can be recycled where infrastructure for paper and cardboard recycling exists. The company is also in the process of switching from single-use plastic bags to paper-based bags, which will contain a thin plastic coating on the inside to enable sealing and ensure product protection. These bags have been verified as technically recyclable in the European Union, the United States, and Canada.
Lego encourages consumers to check with their local authorities on how to correctly dispose of its recyclable packaging, as the rules for recycling vary between countries, regions, and municipalities. The company provides guidance on how to responsibly dispose of Lego packaging.
While Lego's efforts to transition from single-use plastic are commendable, it is important to note that the company's total emissions increased by 30% from 2020 to 2021, with the majority of the increase coming from scope 3 emissions, which are generated by the company's supply chain. This highlights the complexity of sustainability and the need for a nuanced understanding of a company's entire carbon footprint.
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Carbon emissions and supply chain
Lego, the world's largest toy manufacturer, has built a reputation for the durability of its bricks and its substantial investment in sustainability. The company has pledged US$1.4 billion to reduce carbon emissions by 2025, despite netting annual profits of just over $2 billion in 2022. This commitment is not just for show. Lego sees its core customers as children and their parents, and sustainability is fundamentally about ensuring that future generations inherit a planet as hospitable as the one we enjoy today.
However, Lego's total emissions increased by 30% from 2020 to 2021, mainly due to surging demand during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Notably, 98% of Lego's carbon emissions are categorised as Scope 3, which are generated by a company's supply chain, from upstream suppliers to downstream distributors and end customers. Scope 3 emissions are particularly challenging to track, and fewer than 30% of companies report meaningful Scope 3 emissions. Yet, companies' Scope 3 emissions are, on average, 11.4 times greater than their Scope 1 emissions.
Lego's decision to abandon its "Bottles to Bricks" initiative, which aimed to use recycled plastic bottles, was a surprising outcome of its assessment of the project's environmental impact throughout its supply chain. The company found that producing bricks with recycled plastic would require extra materials and energy to achieve the desired durability, resulting in higher carbon emissions than their current fossil fuel-based manufacturing process.
Lego's experience serves as a wake-up call for companies to address their entire product life cycle, from materials and manufacturing to use and disposal, in their pursuit of sustainability. It also underscores the importance of tracking Scope 3 emissions and the potential challenges in reducing carbon emissions within the supply chain.
Lego remains committed to its sustainability goals and continues to explore alternative sustainable materials, including recycled plastics made from sources like e-methanol. The company has set a deadline of 2032 for achieving these sustainability targets.
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Frequently asked questions
Lego has been working on a prototype brick made from recycled plastic. However, in 2023, the company abandoned its efforts to make bricks from recycled plastic bottles, citing higher carbon emissions over the product's lifetime. The company is now focusing on making each part of ABS more sustainable by incorporating more bio-based and recycled materials.
Lego has been transitioning from single-use plastic to paper-based bags for its packaging. The company has also started using paper-based packaging for its Lego baseplates, which were previously wrapped in single-use plastic. Lego is also removing single-use plastic from its boxes, with many sets already containing elements made from bio-polyethylene (bio-PE), which is made from sustainably sourced sugarcane.
Lego ensures the safety of its recycled plastic bricks by sourcing materials from suppliers that use processes approved by the US Food & Drug Administration and the European Food Safety Authority. The company also conducts extensive testing on any new packaging it develops to confirm its recyclability before use.
