LEGO is taking radical action for the environment and you’ll notice

After a disappointing update, LEGO is still taking concrete steps to make its iconic toy sets more sustainable. You’ll actually notice something about it.

LEGO is releasing great sets for adults with increasing frequency. From a working piano to a giant Eiffel Tower. But yeah, all those cool buildings are all made of plastic.

Disappointing LEGO model

So it’s not completely sustainable. The Danes have set themselves a goal of being completely carbon dioxide neutral (net) by 2050. By 2037, the company wants to reduce its emissions by 37 percent compared to 2019.

This requires major changes, which LEGO is already working on. Two years ago, the company unveiled a prototype of a brick made from recycled PET bottles. Great, but unfortunately the manufacturer was forced to reconsider this development last September. LEGO has discovered that recycling PET will not reduce overall CO2 emissions, in part because it simply requires a lot of new equipment to produce sustainable bricks.

Big sustainable move with packaging

Fortunately, the company is not giving up: the Danes alone will invest more than a billion dollars in greening by 2025, and you will certainly see something of this in the near future.

The matter does not stop at experiments and prototypes. Lego recently Announce The use of plastic (single use) in the collection’s packaging will be phased out and pre-packaged plastic bags will be replaced with new bags made from paper from forests with Forest Stewardship Council certification and FSC-controlled wood.

The company says it tested about seventy different types and sizes of paper in search of ideal alternatives to current packaging. You may have already noticed the changes: LEGO has already begun phasing out plastic bags in building sets in Europe. Instead, you will receive the parts in paper bags.

Minifigures and brick selection

The brand’s separately available minifigures have also been no longer available in plastic packaging since last August. The new bags are made up of 95 percent paper and the rest a thin plastic layer that serves to protect the stones from punctures and stick everything together.

Some things will also change in the official LEGO Stores. Choose Brick, the wall where you can choose and buy individual portions, will soon allow consumers to fill up cardboard boxes instead of plastic cups.

Double investment

The biggest gain, of course, will still be the sustainability of the famous LEGO bricks themselves. But it’s precisely these kinds of changes that make a big difference in the meantime, rather than getting bogged down in experiments and prototypes. In the run-up to Christmas, the Danish giant is selling more building sets than usual. Every time a load of plastic goes out the door.

Intervention at this level is already a big step in the right direction. The brand itself also recognizes that LEGO itself is not quite there yet: in September, the LEGO Group announced plans to triple investments in sustainability and spend more than $1.4 billion on related activities over the next three years.

In the meantime, you can happily continue building. Just check out the adorable, recently revealed fan-made sets you can purchase next year!