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posted by cmn32480 on Saturday June 27 2015, @08:37AM   Printer-friendly
from the plastic-free-plastic....-what'll-they-think-of-next dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 27 2015, @09:16PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 27 2015, @09:16PM (#202224)

    Lego is the one toy nobody ever throws away.

    We still have the maple wooden blocks that we played with c.1960 and they are still popular with visiting kids. While they were well made, they aren't "perfect" like Lego, so when building structures, some selective fitting might be needed. Also, blocks can overlap any amount and be piled at any angle, unlike "digital" and "square" Lego that either lock together or not.

    Unfortunately, the maker, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Playthings [wikipedia.org] was sucked up by CBS... Our set is about like this one, http://daddytypes.com/2010/03/29/250_creative_playthings_maple_blocks_on_ebay.php [daddytypes.com]

    And of course by not land-filling the blocks, we have been unwittingly sequestering their carbon for the last 50+ years!

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 27 2015, @09:32PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 27 2015, @09:32PM (#202230)

    Hey, we had those too. Remarkable the memories that instantly came back when I saw that picture.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 27 2015, @10:14PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 27 2015, @10:14PM (#202244)

      This looks like a second source for blocks with the same modular unit of 1⅜" x 2¾" x 5½",
            http://www.communityplaythings.com/resources/articles/2013/a-company-built-on-blocks [communityplaythings.com]
      The page mentions,
      > Admittedly, Community Playthings wasn’t the first to sell Unit Blocks. That distinction probably goes to Frank Caplan of Creative Playthings.