Lego has decided to take the hit and pay up to 60% over the odds to buy lower-petroleum plastic in a race to remove fossil fuels from its bricks, the company has announced. The Telegraph has more.
The Danish toy maker on Wednesday said it was buying more plastic resin made from renewable materials after struggling to find an alternative material for its bricks.
The company tested more than 600 materials without identifying one that could do the same job as plastic.
Instead, Lego is paying as much as 60% more for more ‘eco-friendly’ plastics compared to so-called ‘virgin’ plastic, derived directly from fossil fuels such as crude oil.
Niels B. Christiansen, Chief Executive, insisted the higher raw material costs would not mean higher prices.
He said: “With a family owner committed to sustainability, it’s a privilege that we can pay extra for the raw materials without having to charge customers extra.”
Virgin plastics require a ready source of oil and are seen as bad for the environment as they encourage extraction. Lego uses around 2kg of petroleum to make 1kg of bricks.
To reduce its carbon footprint, the company has turned to plastics derived from pre-existing products, such as cooking oils.
It is now paying a premium for these products after struggling to find a new material that would allow it to stop using plastic altogether.
Lego is racing to hit its target of making all its toys from renewable and recycled materials by 2032.
It tested “hundreds and hundreds” of substances but said last year it had been unable to find a “magic material” that had a smaller carbon footprint.
The company has also struggled with using recycled plastics. It was forced to abandon plans to use recycled bottles for its bricks after realising the process would have led to higher carbon emissions than its current set-up.
Worth reading in full.
A family owner choosing to take lower profits rather than pass on higher costs is hardly a replicable business model. And for how long? 60% higher raw material costs without increasing prices is not sustainable. And presumably the cost is steep because the material is in high demand for other uses. Wouldn’t it be better just to accept that some things have to made from plastic?
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Another scheme that’s dimmer than a 3W bulb.
It won’t even keep those JSO idiots happy either…..
I reckon the bricks will be crap, too. I got fake Lego from family in the DDR back in the day and it was just horrible compared to the real thing.
I have an acquaintance who works for Lego in Denmark, she mentioned that the company had so much money they couldn’t give it away to enough charities for tax purposes, I suggested lowering the prices and she replied they would never consider that.
Seems a modestly higher manufacturing costs is one way to reduce your taxable income.
Let’s not exaggerate here, it’s taking the cost to make a block from 0.01 pence and making it 0.0165p, and the block is sold for 5p
True. The Danes are very avaricious in business. Lego has a wholesome image but is undoubtedly a rapacious profit maker, too.
And as a free market believer, I see nothing wrong with that
This sounds like virtue signalling or greenwash. Perhaps they expect to win over some customers who go for “green” products. However, surely such customers wouldn’t be buying plastic-looking toy bricks anyway and would be getting their kids used to building their own houses out of recycled pallets, plastic straws up and mud!
Never mind Lego bricks. The insane bastards will be trying to fine us to remove all the carbon from house bricks next. I do not joke.
That’s the main thing. We are on the verge of cultural collapse, massive health deterioration, economic ruin, nuclear war. But good to see that Lego has its prirrities right. Try having enthusiasm for Lego when you have been annihilated into a shadow by a nuke or degraded into a cannibal. What are you going to do – get a stiff out of the chest freezer, eat him, and then have fun with everyone assembling some Lego together?
Walkers.
The propaganda must go on!
Sorry chaps, should be wankers of course.
Siece the war we in western Europe have grown used an adventure playground lifestyle. As if that was ever anything durable. In a predatory world do you think the predators are just going to let a tank full of domesticated fattened fish go to waste. It is more about us softened people getting a grip than anything else.
Lego appears to have a death wish.
Fortunately, I have a suitcase full of traditional Lego in my garage – a legacy from my sons which I’ve kept just in case any grandchildren ever appear 🙂
I guess its value is going to rocket in a few years ……
The madness goes on. They’ll also install more machines to replace humans. So thanks to enviro communism, humans will suffer.
Jumping through the Sustainability Hoops. —-Is this really about concern for a planet that is actually doing fine, or is it just more ESG point scoring?
Lego have missed an obvious trick that would save them this extra expense – make the bricks in the traditional manner, melt them down again then remould them in the same factory and voila – every box can now state ‘Lego is made from recycled material’!
Makes as much technological, economic and practical sense as any other Net Zero measure.
Indeed ‘[Lego] tested hundreds and hundreds of substances but said last year it had been unable to find a ‘magic material’ that had a smaller carbon footprint’ should be adopted as the slogan of the entire futile and astronomically expensive Climate Change project.
”Niels B. Christiansen, Chief Executive, insisted the higher raw material costs would not mean higher prices.”
Insisting gravity doesn’t exist in Legoland doesn’t make it so for the World outside.