Julie Boulton (the greening of) — Issue #67

Life with LEGO

Julie Boulton
Sep 6, 2018 · 9 min read
LEGO used as a wall feature (Seoul, 2016)

I’ve just spent the day — a really nice sunny day — inside cleaning. Re-organising really, that was bought on from reading too many articles last week about the dangers of electronic devices in your bedroom at any time. Because I have three children, the eldest who is using a computer more and more for “homework”, these articles started to worry me one child who is of the age So I decided to move the girls desks out of their rooms and in to the playroom, which meant I needed to make room for the desks in the playroom, which meant cleaning the playroom and when you clean any place where kids predominantly live you will inevitably step on LEGO — even when you are being super careful to not step on LEGO you will step on LEGO — and it really hurts (there is a video below of a guy explaining exactly why it hurts so much).

We have a lot of LEGO in our house (LEGO calculates that there is enough LEGO in the world for every person on Earth to have 83 bricks– we have more than that). Years ago I was a super mum and I stored the LEGO by colour. It didn’t last long because it meant that I refused to let the kids play with the LEGO in an effort to ensure the LEGO stayed separated. Now, the LEGO sits either in one big box in pieces, inside the wooden doll house as assembled things, or, most usually, on the floor. Despite the terror of treading unexpectedly on LEGO, I like the fact that my kids play with LEGO.

What I really like is LEGO’s virtual indestructibleness. Twenty-one years ago, a cargo ship lost a container full of LEGO (around 4.8 million pieces to be exact) in the sea and today, those pieces (which were, ironically, mostly nautically themed) are continuing to wash up on the shores of England mostly, but also all over the world, and, once cleaned, they look and work as though they are brand new (if you find a piece, make sure you notify the LEGO Lost at Sea group — it is real!). While this story is absolutely terrible and terrifying for plastic pollution reasons, it is fascinating in terms of the lifespan of LEGO, further proven by a dude called Phil. Phil, clearly a clever fellow, built an automatic machine to stress test LEGO. He discovered that two LEGO pieces can be assembled and disassembled 37,112 times before failing (the experiment took ten days). And you can stand on it. Repeatedly. A single brick, which is really not that big at all, can support 432 kilograms (or 953 pounds) of pressure, which is one of the reasons why it hurts so much when you stand on it — it has no give at all! The durability of LEGO really is amazing, especially when compared to so many other pieces of plastic in the market masquerading as toys.

That’s the kicker: LEGO is plastic, (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene is the technical term for the plastic used). I probably don’t have to remind you — but I will — plastic is made from oil, which is, of course, a non-renewable fossil fuel. LEGO has been made the same way from the same product since 1958, (the date when the current brick range launched: LEGO production actually began in 1932). Each day, LEGO HQ, situated in Denmark (LEGO is a Danish company) makes around 100 million more LEGO “elements” (that’s the fancy term for the bricks) which means there is a lot of oil involved. I don’t know how much, so I will just say it is a lot (about 4 percent of global annual consumption of petroleum is used to make plastic that is used in a range of products). I do know, however, because LEGO tells me, that LEGO emits about a million tons of carbon dioxide each year.

Don’t despair about LEGO just yet though because LEGO has been quietly undergoing a transformation. In 2015, LEGO announced that it intends to be fully sustainable by 2030 and, much like one of its LEGO instruction manuals, it has methodically set out the steps it will take to get there.

On its website, it has two sustainability goals: reducing CO2 emissions (“It is our aim to reduce our own and our suppliers’ CO2 emissions and to build 100% renewable energy capacity”); and to responsibly source its raw materials (“to find and implement sustainable alternatives to our current oil-based raw materials by 2030 and to use sustainable packaging for all LEGO products”).

Unlike me, who struggles somewhat to follow the LEGO instruction manual exactly, (I always seem to skip a page or, let’s be honest. I get bored halfway through and make something else other than what the manual intended), LEGO is successfully, and seemingly easily, working towards achieving its targets, which you could say is equivalent to building something as complex as the LEGO Friends jungle hideaway, (I found that one particularly challenging — it came with two instruction manuals).

This year, LEGO released its first “sustainable” bricks made from polyethylene, a type of plastic that is made from ethanol derived from sugarcane. The polyethylene is sustainably and responsibly sourced (adhering to the Bioplastic Feedstock Alliance guidance). These new sustainably produced elements will make up two per cent of LEGO’s plastic output at first, (not coincidentally, the first sustainable pieces are in the ‘botanical’ LEGO range and includes leaves, bushes and trees), but, by 2030, all LEGO will be made from sustainable materials, (LEGO’s Sustainable Materials Centre, established in 2015, is busy researching alternatives).

Other examples of LEGO’s sustainability successes include:

  • Meeting its renewable resource target three years earlier than scheduled: all energy consumed at all LEGO Group factories, stores and offices globally is now exceeded by the Group’s investments in renewable energy (made up of offshore wind farms and solar);
  • Reducing its waste and consumption levels by shrinking the LEGO boxes by an average of 14% (which meant that, in 2015, approximately 7,000 tonnes less of cardboard was used);
  • Responsibly sourcing its cardboard packaging: all paper packaging and building instructions are 100% Forest Stewardship Council approved; and
  • Becoming the first — and, to date, the only — toy company to be named a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Climate Savers Partner (this program encourages partners to transition to low-carbon leaders).

Why move to sustainability though? LEGO was, and still is, a profitable company when it announced its environmental intentions so why did it feel that it should, or needed to, change? I don’t work at LEGO, or know anyone who does, but I’ve read their website, played with their products and read many a LEGO manual so I’m totally qualified to make some completely un-tested assumptions here! I have three, One: they, being the people who work at LEGO and make statements about LEGO, just seem like lovely people (a slight generalisation but have a look for yourself, they genuinely seem like they care about what it is they are doing and why which I think makes a huge difference to a brand). Two: they have a great theme song: “Everything is Awesome”, which, surely, prompts all of their workers turning up every day wanting to make positive change. Three: they make toys mostly for kids, although that Bugatti car — see below — is taking one’s LEGO skills to another level, (I would hate to see the size of the instruction manual for that baby), and they are taking that responsibility seriously: they want/need kids around and they need a planet on which kids can continue to live, and live well, and to play well too which, funnily enough, is exactly what LEGO means in Danish. If you link your reputation to the children of tomorrow — the future — then you kind of need to also consider the planet that we will all be living in (the Greenpeace ad, link in The Guardian article below, was very clever in doing just this).

I’ll leave the last words to LEGO:

“Our mission is to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow. We believe that our main contribution to this is through the creative play experiences we provide to children. The investment announced is a testament to our continued ambition to leave a positive impact on the planet, which future generations will inherit. It is certainly in line with the mission of the LEGO Group and in line with the motto of my grandfather and founder of the LEGO Group, Ole Kirk Kristiansen: Only the best is good enough”.

jb


LEGO links

Screen shot 2013 04 17 at 4 31 24 pm
Screen shot 2013 04 17 at 4 31 24 pm

Stress Testing Lego | Make:makezine.com
How many times can you assemble two LEGO bricks together before they wear out? Phillipe Cantin decided to find out.

 76406297 624 lego pile
 76406297 624 lego pile

The Cornish beaches where Lego keeps washing up — BBC Newswww.bbc.com
A container filled with Lego fell into the sea in 1997. The pieces are still turning up today.

Lego flippers that washed up on the beaches of southwest england
Lego flippers that washed up on the beaches of southwest england

20 Years After the Great Lego Spill, They’re Still Washing Ashore | Inversewww.inverse.com
A picture-framer by day, Rob Arnold of Cornwall, UK, spends his free time cleaning up a mess from 20 years ago. The great Lego spill of 1997 is still littering beaches.

Xxunazm
Xxunazm

Rob Arnold — 35 bags of Microplastics collected at Tregantle beach on one day in May 2017. — Album on Imgurimgur.com
Post with 515681 views. Rob Arnold — 35 bags of Microplastics collected at Tregantle beach on one day in May 2017.

Lego
Lego

Three Steps the Lego Group is Taking Towards Zero Waste | Waste360www.waste360.com
The Lego Group is known worldwide for its plastic brick toys, but the latest design the company is considering is the bricks themselves a more sustainable product.

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News largepicture 12277 1200x320 59899c5824ba0

LEGO’s Efforts to Reduce Its Environmental Impact — State of Greenstateofgreen.com
Three years ahead of schedule, the LEGO Group has achieved its ambition to balance 100% of its energy use with energy from renewable sources. Next on their list is the 2030 ambition to find and implement sustainable alternatives to plastic materials.

Legos green
Legos green

Legos Are Going Green | HowStuffWorksentertainment.howstuffworks.com
Lego announced it is switching to a sugarcane-based plastic as part of its commitment to sustainable materials. HowStuffWorks looks at the change.

Merlin 137674470 486eb273 ba3b 4808 857f 956b9cb7f533 facebookjumbo
Merlin 137674470 486eb273 ba3b 4808 857f 956b9cb7f533 facebookjumbo

Lego Wants to Completely Remake Its Toy Bricks (Without Anyone Noticing) — The New York Timeswww.nytimes.com
The Danish toymaker has relied on oil-based plastics for over 50 years. It wants to give them up by 2030. Finding alternatives is a vast project.

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9505538 16x9 700x394

Lego switches to ‘sustainable’ plant-based plastic for small percentage of product — ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)www.abc.net.au
The Danish toymaker, which manufactures billions of pieces of Lego every year, is set to start using plant-based plastic in a bid to tackle waste and environmental damage, but the change will only affect a small percentage of its product.

Sustainable lego plastic pollution
Sustainable lego plastic pollution

‘Sustainable’ Lego: Why plastics from plants won’t solve the pollution crisis | The Independentwww.independent.co.uk
Lego is going to start making toys from plant-based plastic. In an effort to become more sustainable, the Danish company announced plans to make tiny plastic trees and bushes for its playsets using ethanol extracted from Brazilian sugarcane. Yet while this looks like a forward thinking move, these toys represent just a tiny proportion of Lego’s overall production.

www.theguardian.com
Toymaker will not renew current multimillion pound deal, that sees Shell-branded Lego sets sold at petrol stations, following a viral video against Arctic drilling by the green group

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Https  2f 2fspecials images.forbesimg.com 2fimageserve 2f35819058 2fx

How Lego Rebuilt Itself As A Purposeful And Sustainable Brandwww.forbes.com
The centerpiece of this initiative is Lego’s Sustainable Materials Center, which is expected to recruit more than 100 employees in an effort to find and implement sustainable alternatives to existing materials by 2030.

Julie Boulton

Written by

writer of random thoughts on life | weekly environmental newsletter, Julie Boulton (the greening of) | obsessed by roadside goods | julieboulton75.com

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