London CNN —Lego has abandoned plans to make its famous bricks from recycled plastic bottles, saying that the manufacturing process would be more polluting than the current production of oil-based bricks.
The toymaker has pledged to use only sustainable materials in its products by 2032 and, two years ago, unveiled a prototype brick made from recycled PET.
The plastic was sourced from bottles that are typically used for water or soda.
Testing also found that the recycled plastic wasn’t as durable and safe as ABS and didn’t have the material’s “clutch power,” which enables bricks to stick together and be pulled apart easily, the spokesperson added.
However, Lego is “not abandoning [its] effort to make oil-free bricks” and remains “fully committed to making Lego bricks from sustainable materials by 2032.”Recycled PET is just one of hundreds of materials the company has tested as a potential replacement for ABS, the spokesperson said.
Persons:
—, toymaker, Lego’s, Raimonda Kulikauskiene
Organizations:
London CNN, Financial Times, CNN, ABS
Locations:
Danish, Billund