Plastic waste is one of the biggest problems we humans have created for the environment. It can be extremely dangerous to lots of different plant and animal species, and most plastic take forever to break down once it is buried in the dirt or ends up in the ocean.
Lego bricks; these are pretty much 100 % plastic. Image by Wikimedia Commons user Marval703, posted with the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
I’ve written lots of different posts about why plastic is dangerous and how it affects the ecosystems previously, so if you don’t believe that plastic is bad, check out some of my older post for some great sources. If not, the summary is that it’s extremely bad for the environment, both when it is produced (huge amount of carbon dioxide), and when it is used as pollution (thrown away into nature or the ocean instead of being recycled).
Read more about plastic pollution
If you want to learn more about the issues of plastic, check out some of these posts:
- A study of mesopelagic fish found that 73 % of them had plastic in their gut.
- Plastic waste in the ocean has been found to have a twentyfold increase of disease in corals; adding one more threat to the list of things that could potentially kill corals.
- Scientists have discovered that the soil fungus Aspergillus tubingensis can break down plastic.
- Why does it take so long for plastic to decompose when throw into nature?
Lego is changing to a sustainable alternative to plastic
Today I am going to be sharing some great news with you guys, and that is that the LEGO Group, a family owned company from Denmark will start producing their famous plastic bricks from green plastic. I’m sure all of you have heard about Lego in the past, so I’m not going to be spending lots of time to explain what it is, but for those who don’t know, it’s basically a very popular toy for children where the can create cool stuff from small plastic bricks. Think of it as real-life Minecraft.
The Lego Group intends to shift away from using regular plastic, and instead make them from botanical sources. The products will still technically be plastic, but instead of being made from fossil fuels, they are made from biological material such as bushes, tress and leaves. The most common “green” plastic material is coming from sugar cane, and provides a soft and durable type of plastic.
Tim Brooks, senior director for Environmental Sustainability at LEGO promises that the Lego bricks will be of the same quality as the previous toys that were made from regular plastic, and that neither children or parents will notice any difference.
This green plastic is obviously a lot more expensive to produce, so it’s great to see that some companies actually prefer to make less money in favor of reducing their carbon footprint!
The Lego Group is taking the environment very seriously, and has already spend 1 billion Danish crowns, or about $135 million in order to reduce their carbon footprint. The company does already run entirely on renewable energy, so it’s safe to say that they are doing their best to create a better future.
It almost looks like Minecraft, but it is indeed a big display of Rio de Janeiro recreated in Lego. Image by Afmoura, posted with the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
Better, but far from ideal
Going from “dirty plastic” to “green plastic” made from botanical sources is very great, and certainly reduces the emission that goes up to the atmosphere and causes the climate change, but it’s still not a very good solution.
Despite being green, the plastic still has a lot of the issues that we have with regular plastic, such as plastic pollution. It still takes just as long to break down the plastic in nature or in the ocean, so you would still need to recycle it if you don’t want to harm the environment.
Another thing to keep in mind is that only 1 – 2 % of the bricks made by Lego will be made by this new green plastic. However, they have said that they hope to be using 100 % sustainable plastic by 2030, and the sets released this year is only the beginning. So right now it will not make a huge impact, but they have promised to improve annually, so let’s hope the project goes according to plan!
A final “problem” with this plastic is that it’s made from sugar cane, which might sound great, but a growing sugar cane industry is also one of the reasons why the Amazon rainforest is getting deforested.
A sugar cane field. Image by Bitancortmaria, posted with the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
So, this new green plastic is far from perfect, but it’s a great start!
Will we see more green plastic in the future?
As I mentioned, plastic is both harmful for the environment when produces, as well as when it is used as pollution (when not recycled), so changing from fossil fuel based plastic into bioplastic is a huge improvement. I hope to see more companies follow the example set by Lego in the future, because I know for sure that I will be much more likely to buy these sustainable sets than the “dirty” Lego sets in a few years when my son wants to play with Lego.
Thanks for reading
I am really happy that Lego is doing this change, and I wish them the best of luck. In contrast to some other people I am not 100 % sold on the idea that this green plastic is the best solution for all our plastic problems, but hey – it’s a lot better than the fossil fuel based plastic. Let’s cross our fingers that we are able to create a real bioplastic that breaks down easily in the environment, and that is also not crazy expensive at one point.
Anyway, I have a question for you guys! Do you care about this at all from a consumer perspective? I know we all want to stop the destruction of the environment, but does this make you more inclined to buy Lego to your family or friends’ children?
About @valth
Hey, I'm @valth - the author of this post. I love to write about nature, biology, animals, nature conservation, ecology and other related branches of science, and I occasionally write about my life, about Steem or about random stuff as well. I'm trying my best to write at least one post every day, so make sure to give me a follow if you enjoy my content and want to see more of it.
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I hope this is not a marketing coup to speed up turn-over rate for lego bricks. Is any information provided how longevity and robustness compare between conventional and "green" bricks?
Current lego bricks remain completely functional for decades and can thus be passed on from one generation to the next. Will this be possible with the green bricks, too? Abrasion resistance will be a key parameter to evaluate the actual energetic and environmental benefit of the new bricks.
Thanks for digging this out, as a lego enthusiast I will have a look into this myself.
Hi @shaka.
First off, I do not believe that this is just a PR move to get good faith from consumers or increase their sales in short-term. Back in 2015 they announced their new division "LEGO Sustainable Materials Centre" that got 100DKK / $135m USD that recruited over 100 people to work on making the Lego Group more sustainable. This is a huge sum, so I am at least personally convinced that they are being very serious about their carbon footprint responsibility.
That's a great question, and in hindsight I realize that I should have included a paragraph or two more about the properties of the "green plastic".
The green plastic is often refereed to as biopolyethylene (regular polyethylene is the most common type of plastic). The process of making these two are (simplified):
Biopolyethylene: Ethanol is extracted from sugar canes or other botanical biomass. The ethanol gets dehydrated to become ethylene, and is then made into (bio)polyethylene by addition polymerization.
Polyethylene is basically made when ethane and propane from crude oil and natural gas is steam cracked. This creates ethylene, and this can be made into polyethylene the same way as above.
So, the two types of plastic are actually the same chemically, and it is the manufacturing process that is different. Once the ethylene is made, it does not really matter if it was made from fossil fuels or botanical matter. This means that they should be exactly the same quality as the old Lego bricks, at least in theory.
Keep in mind that I'm an ecologist and not a chemist, so this is not really my area of expertise, but I hope this cleared up some of your concerns.
Best regards from @valth
I guess my sceptical stance derives from everyday observations, that bio or green products often (not always ofc) are worse products at higher price compared to the conventional standard. Bio-degradable bags for organic waste being one of the more striking examples. I'm still looking for one that doesn't already degrade within my waste bin :)
Regarding Lego, I fully agree that it seems rather unlikely that they would risk their outstanding reputation with such a move. A poor product quality would be revealed immediately and upset millions of customers. Only the german automotive industry can afford that...
This is a great addition to your post. In theory, if the polymer would exactly be the same then so should be the quality of the bricks. However, in chemistry, a different manufacturing process always means a different product, e.g. in terms of impurities. Now, in particular when it comes to polymerization, small amounts in whatever remnants can have a measurable impact on the products quality.
Anyway, I'm confident that Lego has done enough stress testing to ensure flawless quality for their bio bricks.
Hi again, @shaka.
Yeah, I get what you mean. I sometimes find my biodegradeable waste bags to have been torn while still in the bin. It's really frustrating when I have to clean the bin to remove old food..
It unfortunately seems like we have to choose a trade-off for most "green" products these days; either we get it cheap and durable, or we get it from a sustainable source. It would be truly amazing if we managed to create a type of bioplastic that was just as good, or even better, than regular fossil fuel plastic.
That's a good point. There's always a gap between theory and real life, so I guess it all boild down to whether or not we have good faith in the company that attempts this. While I want to trust that Lego is certain about this, I also think you are right in questioning them. Maybe this is also the reason why they are only going to be making 1 - 2 % of the new bricks from this green plastic; to kind of test them in real situations before increasing the production? I'm sure they have tested it a lot in the labs, but there can also be a gap between the lab and real life as well.
That was a wonderful conversation @shaka and @valth. The questions that I had in my mind after reading the article were discussed clearly in this conversation. Thank you.
I'm glad you got your questions answered :) I guess I should probably have added a bit about this in the main post!
Dear @shaka, dear @valth! thank you guys for continuing this topic more profoundly. I mean, to be honest i wouldn't have think about questioning the longevity of those "eco" products myself... 😅 so good point shaka! 🥂 this is true that lego is one of those consumer goods (especially within the category of "products for kids") that will not be thrown to a garbage just because there is a new line released. btw. I understand your frustration concerning bio-degradable bags, but once you travel across f.ex. Central or South America, your heart just bleed when you see those plastic bags on every corner of the street or in the forests. there is garbage everywhere, most of people do not care at all, having other concerns like money for food or health care... i wish you both a great day! ☀️ 🍀
It's sadly always like this; the poorer the people, the less they care about plastic and waste recycling. But I can't really blame any of them, and I know I would not have cared about recycling if I had immediate concerns about feeding or protecting my family. They just got to prioritize their use of time and energy.
Have a great day yourself, @k-a-s-i-a. Sorry I didn't get to reply to your earlier!
No problem and thank you for replying anyway :) (you see, i've just realised myself that you replied 😅). You expressed exactly what i meant. We can really blame them. On the other hand some steps must be taken in order to protect the ecosystem. thought one... 😐
Hugs! ☀️☀️
Yes, the same happens in India as well. I also heard that India is importing garbages. People in my locality are not at all responsible. They are completely addicted to plastics. Now we have no place to dispose of our garbages, so we are dumping it in residential areas and near schools. That is the reason why I'm really concerned about using of plastics. I was once standing in streets protesting against dumping garbage near residential zones. I then got frustrated with government and stopped doing it.
My only mantra now is, reduce the production of plastics in the first place to be able to save our ecosystem. The only solution we have is to look for plastic alternatives than finding a way to dispose of one.
Lego is already recyclable. You can build a house and when you are fed up with it you can pull it apart and use the pieces to build a dinosaur.
Hehe, that's a good point. It's not like anyone will just throw a lot of Lego into the garbage!
But the process of creating this green plastic will reduce the amount of pollution that comes from creating the Lego bricks, so the new ones you buy will be a lot better for the environment :)
lol, That's probably the best comment to a post I've read all week! Well played!
Very true, and this recycling can be done for decades with the same bricks. Will this be possible with the green bricks, too?
I seriously loved this article!! informative and well-written, as always! Thank you so much! And thank you for being such an active promoter of environmental consciousness! we definitely would need more across the globe, in all social media /every family, right? Funny, or rather sad i guess, thing is that even for a rather aware person like myself, when i was thinking about plastic and plastic pollution Lego wasn't popping into my head before. and its pure plastic! :(
Thank you very much for these kind words, @k-a-s-i-a! It really means a lot to me to see that people actually care about what I write about :)
Absolutely! It's really easy to "forget" about all these issues if no one is there to post about them. And I find that these types of post often also bring new ideas to the people who read them, and might actually make a (small) change for the better :)
Yeah, I didn't really think of it myself, but we don't get any purer plastic than Lego. But I think that while it has a lot of emissions from production, we don't really have the same plastic pollution from Lego, because most people don't throw it away. It's certainly too expensive for me to throw away, and most people I know about hang onto it to give to their children / grandchildren.
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Thanks!
I like the idea and I'm sure it's going to do oodles of help for the environment. As a consumer, however, I can't say either way without a price. I know you said that the company was willing to lose money over this, but is the consumer going to pay the same price, or more?
I love doing what I can to reduce my own footprint by doing simple things like using re-usable container, not eating at fast food restaurants, and keeping my thermostat lower in the winter, but these things cost nothing, or are actually saving me money. I don't have a problem choosing between two things where one is eco-friendly and the other isn't if they have a comparable price, but how much do you feel people will pay in addition to lower their footprint if it makes it harder on them?
I noodled for prices online, but I can't find anything about it. The closest I got was a user commenting about their concerns about the product not being affected by quality or price. I'm hoping it won't. I feel that if you can make a difference without changing the customer's experience, you will undoubtedly hit a home run.
That's a good point. At least here in Norway, Lego is crazy expensive, and I bet only a few dollars of the $150 sets are even used to buy the plastic materials. The process of molding and packing them will be the same, so I'm not sure if it will affect the price a lot. But it's an interesting point, and I hope they cover the loss from their income instead of raising the price.
Yeah, we all want to be more carbon friendly, but very few of us wants to pay more money for it. And I can't blame anyone for this, and I very rarely pay premium for environmentally friendly products myself. I think it's really important to find cheaper or equally cheap options if we want more people to choose renewable/"green" products.
Finally, I don't think they have said anything about how it affects the price, so either they are waiting with announcing this, or they plan to keep it the same. Guess we need to wait and see.
Thanks for a great comment, @thegreatlife!
Hi Valth,
Great article with an honest and interesting view!
Allays happy to see positive changes in environment issues, though this smells of corporate brand strategy rather than heartfelt concern for the environment. Lego is claiming to "leave the old polluting habits behind" and start fresh by contributing to mono forestation instead and trying to capitalize on it at the same time. Most people will only remember "green Lego" unaware that it's only 1% of the total volume that is "green".
Smart move Lego.
Cheers, Erlend
BTW: I'm 42 and still purchases Lego for myself occasionally ;)
Hi, @erlendgroseth.
Yeah, I see what you mean. It can also be pretty difficult to compare monoculture versus fossil fuels in terms of how bad they are for the environment, and I honestly don't know too much about this. But one important thing to keep in mind is that the ethanol used to create the plastic from the sugar canes is a byproduct from the sugar industry, so I'm not even sure if they are creating new farms for this. It will probably affect the prices of rum if more companies does this though :P
Anyway, for me personally it all boils down to whether or not they make progress towards improving. Right now 1-2 % green plastic is not enough to really sell me on the idea, but they also promised to improve, so I guess we have to wait and see before making any final conclusion.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting! And sorry that it took me several days before I got to answer you.
Best regards from @valth
@valth thats a very socially responsible thing to do the likely hood of lego ending up in the sea and oceans is a lot less likely to happen than the plastic waste you have previously mentioned, lets hope they can develop a sustainable business model for this approach!!
I can only speak for myself, but I find Lego to be insanely expensive, and there is no way I will ever throw it away. I rather treat it like heritage that can be passed on to the next generations. I have no idea about the prices everywhere else, but here in Norway even a medium-sized set could easily cost $150+.
Wow that is super expensive, if I were paying that price for lego I’d be playing with it myself!! My little boy loves his Duplo lego sets.
Once he gets older and wants more i think i would feel quite happy buying lego sets for him knowing they were made from recycled plastic and would happily support any company trying to help the environment out by reducing these plastic mountains we currently have.
Lets hope more companies adopt this type of social responsibility who use vast amounts of plastics in their products.
That's what I was thinking as well. I'm actually feeling a lot more inclined to spending so much money on Lego products if I know that they are a company that are doing a lot to be sustainable.
Absolutely. I guess we as consumers must also begin to demand social responsibility if we really want it. I know so many people that are constantly complaining about the big fashion brands using slave-like labor, but still wear their clothing. I mean, we have to vote with our wallets if we want change.
The only concern I have now is when these industries start growing and start to use bioplastics, there should be enough resources available to be able to provide raw materials for them. Moving from a non-biodegradable to bio-degradable is very good. But at the same time, we should also be aware of the other factors like growing more sugarcanes to be able to feed such industries.
In the modernization, agriculture is also not surviving. In India, most of the agriculture lands have been converted to residential zones. Not just agriculture lands, there are even forest and hill regions being converted to residential and commercial zones. So it will be ideal to look for methods to improve agriculture and do afforestation as well.
Yeah, there are absolutely some problems with having more sugarcane farms! People are literarily logging down the rain forest to make room for these types of farms, so there's for sure a lot of problems.
Interesting! I don't think all parts of the world has this problem just yet, but it makes sense that densely population countries such as India will experience this.
I love Lego. It's a great way for kids (and adults) to unfold their creativity. Green plastic is a big plus, but as you write - it's still not a perfect solution. But at least they show that they care and that they try. A good step forward.
Yep, I agree with you. It might not save the world just yet, but these small steps add up over time!
Thanks for your great post. Lots of good information there. The cynic in me says that it's a PR greenwashing stunt, but really I think that may play only part. Their product has to be durable so they could never produce a Lego brick that will break down quickly. Fortunately most Lego bricks have a long life from the consumers who buy them. We've even had bricks past on through the generations. Single use plastic is much bigger problem I think. I look forward to reading more of your posts.
You're welcome! I get why you might think that it is a greenwashing PR move, but I have faith in Lego, so I don't think you are right. As said in the post, they have already gone to great lengths to make their entire company run of only renewable energy already, so they obviously care about this stuff.
Yeah, absolutely. I have some Lego myself that my parents got when they were children, and I'm going to be passing that along to my son soon. It's a very durable product.
Single use plastic is a huge problem, and by far a much bigger problem than Lego is, but I'm also afraid that it will be a lot more difficult to get these companies to invest into green plastic.
Lego was my favorite toy during my childhood. It's good that Danish company is giving new direction to other companies. I must say very nice imitative by Lego manufacturing to use green plastic instead of fossils fuel plastic. It's just a small step but all great work accomplished by small steps, so hope for the best. Hopefully more companies will follow the footprint of Lego companies.
Me too! I have so much old Lego stashed away at my parents house. Can't wait to pass it on to my son in a few years ;)
Yeah, it's indeed a great initiative. I also really hope more companies will follow, and we really do need more of them to take responsibility for all the plastic they use.
I understand the affection of father and indeed it's an amazing experience to see your child playing with same toys of your childhood.
Although I was excited at the beginning of the reading of this article, at the end I was kind of disappointed. This looks like a big chunk of communication and nothing more :(
Hehe, I get why you feel that way, @lemouth.
I also had the "what? Only 1-2 %?" feeling, but I kind of get why they are doing it slowly. The Lego Group is a huge company, and changing the basis of their entire production is a huge undertaking. I guess it is very difficult to even get their hands on as much bioplastic as they even need without promoting the building of new sugarcane farms.
I just hope they keep their promise of increasing the production steadily until 2030 (when they plan to be 100 % "green").
Yeah, let's have faith :D
How was this not already a thing? It seems like a huge marketing opportunity. I mean they theoretically they wouldn't even need to color some of them you could use clear and green clear to make bricks of that same shade.
I am happy they are doing it. It makes perfect sense... but 10 years too late imo.
Hehe, keep in mind that "green plastic" is not physically green, it just got the name green because that is often used for things that are friendly towards the environment :)
I agree that it's 10 years too late, but there are still thousands of companies that have not done this yet, so I would rather be angry at them for not going there yet, than being angry at Lego for taking until now to do it :)
Yeah plastic is plastic whether green or made from fossils..
But still it is better...It's better to start by something than nothing...I really hope that this plan of theirs continues to grow as planned and more and more companies follow the route..
Exactly what I believe as well. It's still a long way before we get to perfect "green" plastic, but every small step brings us one step closer ;)
yes. absolutely right. every journey start with first step. Let's hope for the best
Excellent post friend makes me remember my childhood I loved the lagos I loved them Thanks for sharing made me return to that time where I was very happy greetings good friend
Thanks! Yeah, I loved to play with Lego when I was a child as well :)
hey i am a big fan of logos
sir i have some images for you clicked a few months back
i hope you have the time to take a look at it
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Those are nice pictures, @chaitanya.mhatre! Really artistic ;)
Thank you!
Feels amazing receiving compliments for my work from you @valth
well i am a big fan of lego i remember i have played a lot with that its was best time and well they are updating its good to hear that
Yeah, Lego is a lot of fun to play with :)
Yes i have read all your previous articles about plastic.Plastic is very dangerous for community specially sealife.And i didn't knew about LEGO group before but i think if their project will be successfully implemented then this makes a huge difference in environment.You always wrote things that benefits the society.Thanks for sharing :)
Yeah, plastic is a huge problem for the ocean. It is for sure one of the biggest threats we have these days.
I'm glad you liked the post! Have you really never heard about Lego before? :O
Lego is doing great job.its solve very big problem.hope this plastic waste soon will be recycled
Yeah, they are doing very good work :)
Plastic environment plays a major role in pollution..... thanks for sharing very important a blog............
Yes, plastic is a big problem for the environment these days.
Thanks for updating.
You're welcome.
These people are really doing a great work, I appriciate their effort.
Creating bricks from wasted plastic is a good idea.
Salute!
Did you even read the post?
no didn't read it before but read it now.
Well, maybe you should read before you comment then? Because your comment is obviously very wrong, and they are by no means creating bricks from wasted plastic.
Yeah, I accept my mistake :) I was in a hurry, had to go somewhere, got the notification of your post, That's why Commented without reading.
Yes you are right. Thete is alot side effects of plastic pollination. We must use biodegradable kind of sacks. 😉
Yes, that's a good point.
You have received an upvote from @livesustainably. I promote and curate content that encourages and educates others in living sustainably. You can support the live sustainably cause on Steemit by upvoting, resteeming and creating content under the tag #livesustainably.
Thanks! :)