Lego abandons plan to make bricks from recycled plastic bottles

Danish toymaker Lego is abandoning its plan to make its trademark play bricks from recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles by 2023.

The decision announced Monday stems from the company finding out, after two years of research, that the new material did not reduce Lego’s carbon emissions. It, in fact, added extra steps to the production process, increasing emissions.

Launched in 2021, the initiative aimed to shift from Lego’s petroleum-based bricks and offer eco-friendly alternatives sourced from water and soda PET bottles while maintaining quality.

The Denmark toy company produces approximately 4,400 different bricks annually, many of which are crafted from virgin plastic derived from crude oil.

Previous attempts using corn-based and wheat-based materials proved too soft and fell short of visual standards. Other materials resulted in overly rigid and non-interlocking bricks.