The largest toy company in the world, Lego, has earned a reputation for its significant investment in sustainability as well as the longevity of its bricks, which are made to survive for decades. Despite earning yearly profits of slightly over $2 billion in 2022, the corporation has committed US$1.4 billion to cutting carbon emissions by 2025. This dedication is not merely a pretense. Lego views children and their parents as its primary clients, and sustainability is essentially about ensuring that future generations inherit a planet that is just as friendly as the one we currently have.
Therefore, it came as a surprise when Lego discontinued its widely advertised "Bottles to Bricks" project, as reported by the Financial Times on September 25, 2023. With this ambitious endeavor, a new material created from recycled plastic bottles was intended to take the place of conventional Lego plastic. However, Lego discovered that creating bricks with the recycled plastic would take additional resources and energy to make them sturdy enough when it evaluated the project's environmental impact throughout its supply chain. The business chose to continue with its current materials based on fossil fuels while continuing to look for more sustainable substitutes because this conversion process would increase carbon emissions.