Lego Develops First Bricks Made From Recycled Plastic Bottles

Toy giant Lego has unveiled the first prototype of bricks made from recycled plastic bottles.

An incredible 10 4x2 Lego bricks can be created from one single litre plastic bottle. Not bad considering over a billion bricks are made each year.

It’s taken the toy company a staggering three years to create the prototype, using the right balance of discarded bottles with additives to give them the strength of standard Lego parts.

And while the company isn't quite ready to start selling sets made from recycled materials in stores, the plan is for the bricks to be rolled out in 2023.

It’s part of Lego’s complete overhaul to make its products earth friendlier.  In 2018, the company announced that a $400 investment was going towards a team of 250 staff to make its products more sustainable.

Lego has already announced plans to remove single-use plastic from boxes, and since 2018 has been producing parts from bio-polyethylene (bio-PE), made from sustainably sourced sugarcane.

And the move to more eco-friendly even comes down to the dye used to colour the bricks, wanting to move away from oil-based as it currently stand.

Tim Brooks, vice-president for environmental responsibility at Lego Group, said the biggest challenge has been “rethinking and innovating new materials that are as durable, strong and high quality as our existing bricks – and fit with Lego elements made over the past 60 years”.

Recycle Your Lego

P.S Do you know about Bricktastics? They are Australia's largest online second hand LEGO Seller and Buyer. They offer a professional and convenient service for buying peoples used LEGO collections, and offer a range of affordable and creative LEGO packs for people looking for a better way to buy their LEGO. Find out more about Bricktastics here.

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