LEGO is taking another step closer to going full green in its operations.
The Danish toy company announced that it anticipates a switch from its iconic molded plastic bricks to ones made with renewable or recycled materials by 2026. The goal is to switch more than half of its bricks to meet this standard.
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Currently, LEGO’s plastic production process uses quite a lot of fossil fuels: around 2kg of petroleum to make 1kg of bricks, according to The Telegraph. That doesn’t sound very good!
LEGO’s move to a better and sustainable option won’t come cheap, however. LEGO CEO Niels Christianson told Reuters that there will be a “significant increase in the cost of producing a LEGO brick” with this change. No word yet as to what that means for the consumer’s pockets, but presumably, an uptick in production cost means a more expensive product.
An interesting 2013 analysis from one LEGO fan found that the price of a LEGO brick had actually hardly increased since 1980, even though it certainly felt like prices had gone up. They blamed the booming secondary market on eBay and sites like BrickLink, where grail sets can go for much higher than they originally sold.
By 2032, LEGO hopes to fully replace its production with renewable and recycled materials. Christianson said the family-owner is “committed to sustainability” which is why LEGO considers it a “privilege” that it can pay up for a safer material.
Reuters shared a stat from PlasticsEurope that around 90 percent of all plastic is made from virgin fossil fuels. Many companies, particularly those in the toy industry, are aiming to make the switch to going green over the next 5-10 years.
The welcomed change by LEGO will be among its biggest to date since its inception in 1949. The toy bricks have been made with ABS plastic since 1963. ABS, otherwise known as Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, relies on petroleum for its production.
As for the company, LEGO continues to be strong in the space. On Wednesday, it was announced that their revenue increased by 13 percent over the first 6 months in 2024, per CNBC. With this in mind, it makes sense for LEGO to take its continued growth (and profits) and get ahead of the curve by going green before costs grow even higher.
