ego not plans to make bricks out of recycled plastic, saying it doesn’t have a major influence on the carbon footprint of the toy.
The corporate’s trial of constructing Lego bricks out of used plastic bottles has come to an finish, in accordance with CBSNews.
Lego introduced these recycled bricks again in 2021, as an alternative choice to the robust ABS plastic utilized in normal plastic bricks.
“ABS is extremely stiff. Very stiff, very exact, very exhausting. PET is much less stiff, much less exhausting, and fewer exact, in order that’s why we have to use an influence modifier with PET,” vice chairman of environmental duty Tim Brooks informed Wired in 2021.
“That’s what’s completely different right here. We’re utilizing a unique grade of PET with an added ‘secret sauce’ that we’ve got a patent pending on. So that you’re a PET that we’re modifying to make it carry out like ABS.”
On the time of this sustainability announcement greater than two years in the past, Lego made no particular guarantees concerning the roll-out of the PET recycled bricks.
“If all goes properly, you would possibly in the future discover a brick produced from recycled PET in your Lego units,” reads an previous web page on the Lego web site.
Judging by this choice, preliminary hopes of decreasing carbon influence of the bricks by as much as 70 per cent didn’t pan out in actuality.
This isn’t the top to Lego’s environmental ambitions, in fact.
On the finish of August, the corporate pledged to succeed in “internet zero” emissions by 2050, and to chop emissions by 37 per cent lower by 2032, in comparison with figures recorded in 2019.
“The problem is huge, and we’re taking steps throughout all areas of our enterprise to cut back our environmental influence,” says Lego CEO Niels B Christiansen.
These measures embrace making its buildings function in a extra environmentally pleasant method, rising using renewable-energy sources, and dealing with suppliers to enhance carbon insurance policies throughout the availability chain. However, for now, it doesn’t embrace essentially altering the way in which Lego bricks are made.
The model does make a few of its Lego elements from non-ABS plastic supplies, although. In 2018, it started utilizing bio-polyethylene, produced from sugarcane, to supply Lego vegetation, timber, and leaves.
This isn’t only a cute reference. Bio-PE is extra versatile than ABS plastic, making it significantly appropriate for these Lego gadgets. The corporate says “greater than 200” gadgets are made utilizing Bio-PE, together with equipment for minifigs, resembling scuba-diving gear.
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