
Lego will sell its first sustainable pieces later this year - chrisper
https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/2/17070454/lego-bricks-sustainable-plastic-toys
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michaelbuckbee
That's good, but honestly I feel like Lego are maybe one of the best uses of
plastic. High tolerances, resistant to wear and pretty much infinitely
resuable (across literally generations!).

Where plastic is a much greater issue is when it's disposable, like in say the
clear plastic bags that the legos in the box ship in.

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jgh
Interesting point, that makes me think they're really tackling two birds with
one stone here: "sustainability" and increasing revenue because people will
have to buy legos more often.

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legitster
It's a bit silly, right? Like, LEGOs are already sustainable because they are
so long lasting.

If there was one good use left for petro-chemicals, this is kind of the case.
Ultra-durable products that can be reused infinitely. It seems like growing,
harvesting, and processing plant materials would be more resource intensive.

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ocdtrekkie
Indeed, fair concern: Will making these LEGOs differently cause this to be
less so? Will becoming "sustainable" degrade the lifetime of LEGO collections
over time?

(Honestly, this may be a reasonable issue for LEGO at some point. Nobody in
their right mind throws LEGOs away, someday it will hardly make sense to buy
new LEGOs because there will be so many in the market already.)

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masklinn
> Indeed, fair concern: Will making these LEGOs differently cause this to be
> less so? Will becoming "sustainable" degrade the lifetime of LEGO
> collections over time?

> The new sustainable LEGO elements are made from polyethylene, which is a
> soft, durable and flexible plastic, and while they are based on sugar-cane
> material, they are technically identical to those produced using
> conventional plastic. The elements have been tested to ensure the plant-
> based plastic meets the high standards for quality and safety that the LEGO
> Group has, and consumers expect from LEGO products.

Note that this is being deployed only for "botanical elements" (bushes, trees,
…) currently.

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ocdtrekkie
I read both of those facts, yes. But I've got LEGOs going back decades that
demonstrate the actual long-term quality of the existing processes, we have
yet to see how the new ones fare.

And obviously, LEGO will presumably expand the usage of this process if it
works well, is cost effective, or becomes generally preferred.

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ndr
I wonder what's the delta on the actual production process. It seems the
pieces themselves won't have a great impact as they're super durable. Is the
factory any more efficient for these new pieces?

