When you’re a toy brand that been around for as long as LEGO has been, then you’ve had plenty of time to establish many advantages for your products that would draw consumers in. LEGO has done it from the beginning with its educational bent, but now they’ve another: environmental sustainability.
LEGO has recently announced its plan to begin, as of this year, to produce a certain line of building elements not out of regular plastic, but of plant-based material. And what better place to start making LEGO elements out of plant-plastic derivatives than with “botanical” pieces like LEGO trees, and other plant elements.
We’ve seen several LEGO sets with building pieces that make plants and flowers, like in the BrickHeadz Valentine’s Bee (40270) or the LEGO Friends Friendship Flower (30404). Both have pieces that, put together, make plants and blossoms. Future elements of that vein, according to LEGO, will be made of green.
To be precise, the new alternative material for these pieces is polyethylene plastic, made out of ethanol extracts from, believe it or not, sugarcane. The resulting material from this process is, while not entirely biodegradable, will most definitely be recyclable according to LEGO, and is as sturdy as ordinary plastic.
The LEGO Group’s vice-president of environmental responsibility, Tim Brooks, noted that this initiative was natural on the part of the company, constantly trying to make “positive change” in the world. “This is a great first step in our ambitious commitment of making all LEGO bricks using sustainable materials,” he adds.