SoylentNews

Phoenix666 writes in with a story from Treehugger.com:

The company will spend $1 billion and employ a team of 100 to find a sustainable alternative.

Although plastic may be one of the bigger banes of the environment, I've always secretly admired Lego for making toys that are so durable and historically consistent that they don't require replacement on a regular basis. I know plastic is awful, but all Lego would have to do is to revamp the toys' connecting system and zillions of eventually non-relevant Legos would have been sent packing to the landfill to make way for new ones; and Lego would have ensured a tidy profit on the sales of replacements. But they never did that. Plus, a distinct lack of planned obsolescence is a kind thing to provide for customers.

Given the Danish company's track record on sustainability, it doesn't seem like a fluke. They have been working on reducing packaging and have investments in offshore wind farms. Last year they discontinued their partnership with the oil company Shell. But it's their latest announcement that seals the deal. The company plans to replace the plastic in their plastic blocks with a sustainable material by 2030.

The biggest question is, will Lego ever produce general blocks again that you can use to build anything? Now their kits only build exactly the thing on the front of the box, such as a dragon or spaceship.