Building a circular economy: Lego unveils bricks made from recycled PET bottles

24 Jun 2021 --- The Lego Group has created a prototype toy Lego brick made from discarded PET bottles. The prototype marks Lego’s first brick made from recycled material. 

Over the past three years, more than 150 material scientists and engineers tested over 250 variations of PET and hundreds of other plastic formulations. 

The prototype meets several of the company’s quality, safety and play requirements – including clutch power. “With this prototype, we’re able to showcase the progress we’re making,” says Tim Brooks, vice president of environmental responsibility at the Lego Group. 

“The biggest challenge on our sustainability journey is rethinking and innovating new materials that are as durable, strong and high quality as our existing bricks – and fit with Lego elements made over the past 60 years.”

A 1 L PET bottle provides enough raw material for ten 2 x 4 Lego bricks.Prior to the testing phase
On average, a 1 L PET bottle provides enough raw material for ten 2 x 4 Lego bricks.

The prototype is made from recycled PET sourced from US suppliers, using US Food and Drug Administration- (FDA) and European Food Safety Authority- (EFSA) approved processes to ensure quality.

The obtained raw materials are ground into flakes, cleaned and then granulated. The cleaned granulate is molded into test specimens that are evaluated for their mechanical properties. If these do not satisfy the quality and performance requirements, they are sent back for reevaluation.

As Lego is now in the testing phase, one of the company’s many R&D challenges is researching how to color the material. 

Current testing aims to ensure rPET bricks are just as durable as standard Lego bricks.For the children
Once all the necessary brick tests “check out,” Lego will start analyzing the production setup needed to manufacture bricks using the new material. This next phase of testing is expected to take at least a year.

“Even though it will be a while before [children] will be able to play with bricks made from recycled plastic, we want to let kids know we’re working on it and bring them along on the journey with us,” Brooks highlights.

“Experimentation and failing is an important part of learning and innovation. Just as kids build, unbuild and rebuild with Lego bricks at home, we’re doing the same in our lab.”

Bricks of the future
The recycled prototype brick is the latest development in making Legos from more recycled and renewable materials. Leg will invest up to US$400 million over three years to 2022 to accelerate its environmental sustainability ambitions. 

In 2020, the company announced it would begin removing single-use plastic from its boxes. Two years prior, it started producing elements from bio-polyethylene (bio-PE), derived from sugarcane. 

Many Lego sets contain elements made from bio-PE, ideal for making smaller, softer pieces such as trees, branches, leaves and accessories for minifigures. However, bio-PE is “not currently suitable for making harder, stronger elements such as bricks,” says Lego Group.

In other PET second-life stories, PackagingInsights previously spoke with bio-industrial company Carbios about its partnership with Michelin to produce car tires from waste PET bottles. 

By Anni Schleicher