Lego abandons project to stop using petroleum-based plastics

The world's biggest toymaker announced two years ago that it had tested a prototype brick made from plastic recycled from bottles rather than the petroleum-based ABS currently used in about 80% of the billions of pieces it produces each year.

However, Niels Christiansen, CEO of Lego, said that using recycled polyethylene terephthalate (RPET) would have caused more carbon emissions throughout the product's useful life, as it would require a lot of new equipment.

For this reason, Lego decided to try to improve the carbon footprint over time of ABS, which currently needs about 2 kg of oil to produce 1 kg of plastic.

What is the carbon footprint?

A carbon footprint is a measure of the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by an individual, organization, event or product. It is a way of quantifying the environmental impact caused by human activities and can include emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O), among other gases. The carbon footprint is measured in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) and is an important tool for evaluating the effectiveness of actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 👣

“In the early days, the belief was that it was easier to find this magical material or this new material” that would solve the sustainability issue, Christiansen said., but “that doesn’t seem to be there. We tested hundreds and hundreds of materials. It was simply not possible to find material like that.”

Lego's change of tack highlights the difficult decisions companies face around sustainability, where different goals, such as eliminating the use of fossil fuels and reducing carbon emissions, can conflict.

The world's biggest toymaker is rolling back efforts to become more sustainable after finding new material led to higher carbon emissions. The decision illustrates the challenges facing companies looking to go green https://t.co/rRQZGl4YNB

- Financial Times (@FT) September 25, 2023

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