Lego developed high-quality bricks made of recycled plastic, but producing them uses so much energy the carbon footprint is even worse. It's giving up on its plan to introduce them for sale, for now.
Lego has now revealed that after more than two years of testing, it had found that using recycled PET didn't reduce carbon emissions. It said the reason for that was because extra steps were required in the production process, which meant it needed to use more energy. As a result, it said it has "decided not to progress" with making bricks from the material. It said it was currently testing and developing bricks made from "a range of alternative sustainable materials". Niels Christiansen, chief executive of Lego, told the FT that there was no "magic material" to resolve the firm's sustainability challenges.
"We tested hundreds and hundreds of materials. It's just not been possible to find a material like that," he said.
A spokesperson for the company told the BBC: "We remain fully committed to making Lego bricks from sustainable materials by 2032.
Plastics recycling is a lie and we always get caught. I'm printing copies of this story on infuriatingly glossy paper to send to my liberal friends who think they can consume their way to climate sustainability.
