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First sustainable Lego pieces to go on sale
- M_Bakhtiari 9y agoI'm skeptical of PE as a substitute for ABS for the application. It would be interesting to see if someone more familiar with the process could weigh in.
- bllguo 9y agoThe article says "production has begun on a range of Lego botanical elements or pieces such as leaves, bushes and trees". Pieces which are more flexible and, practically speaking, don't necessarily need to meet the same standards as the other pieces
- ghostbrainalpha 9y agoI wish they would focus these on the Duplo Lego sets for Toddlers. A Lego death star built by an adult might need to last twenty years. But a Toddler plays with a Duplo set for maximum of two years, they lose most of the pieces, and if they break it isn't that big a deal. Then they move on to more permanent durable lego sets.
- ars 9y ago> But a Toddler plays with a Duplo set for maximum of two years Do you actually have Toddlers when you say that? They play with them till age 7, and often even later. And do families have just 1 kid now? Do people not give toys away to grandkids or just friends?
- stevbov 9y agoYeah, our 6 year old niece plays with our 2 year old's Duplos. Duplos we got for free from a mommy group on Facebook. Also, I'm pretty sure our toddler would have a breakdown if a Duplo broke.
- ghostbrainalpha 9y agoAgreed... but doesn't your toddler have a breakdown about everything, all the time? Our life is just jumping from crisis, to the next distraction every 15 minutes no matter what.
- dragonwriter 9y ago> Agreed... but doesn't your toddler have a breakdown about everything, all the time? Mine doesn't, and I'm not looking to gratuitously introduce new sources of breakdowns.
- ghostbrainalpha 9y agoI've got a 2.5 yr old and an 11 yr old. The toddler loves his Duplo's, but doesn't build specific things with them. Just randomly mushes them together. My daughter who is 11 now, grew out of that phase at about 5. She wanted real Legos and wanted to follow the instructions exactly to build what was on the box. Maybe that was unusual, she is very uptight, but its what I was basing my experience on.
- dragonwriter 9y ago> But a Toddler plays with a Duplo set for maximum of two years, Lego and Duplo are compatible, so as long as someone is free building (rather than just following instructions on a set) with Lego, there is no reason not to use Duplo as part of that. Unless their parents gave them away, most kids I've known that kept playing with Lego kept their Duplo too. > they lose most of the pieces Duplo pieces are pretty large and distinct, so if they are used indoors, the recovery rate is pretty high. I kind of doubt this, especially on a two-year time frame. > and if they break it isn't that big a deal. Broken shards of rigid plastic around toddlers is, in fact, a big deal, for the same reason people tend not to let toddlers play with steak knives and scissors.
- takk309 9y agoKeep in mind that the plant "bricks" have always been flexible and not made from ABS. The only thing Lego is changing is the raw material for the plastic, not the plastic itself.
- M_Bakhtiari 9y agoNow that I think of it, I seem to remember the plant parts as having a waxy feel to them compared to the regular bricks, consistent with PE, so maybe the only thing they changed was the feedstock.
- dsr_ 9y agoThey aren't substituting for ABS. ABS continues. This is a substitute for the existing non-ABS, non-rubber parts. (You probably know that LEGO makes more tires than anyone else in the world.) Certain small parts are molded in a softer, non-ABS plastic, and PE is the replacement for that. Look for rubbery-feeling parts in existing sets.
- bradleyjg 9y agoA little off topic, but I recently found out that you essentially can't buy plain old legos+ anymore. I wanted to buy some as a gift and I ended up having to buy knock offs because the lego company effectively doesn't sell them anymore. + I.e. full height 2x2, 2x3, 2x4
- enriquto 9y agoI don't know where you come from, but in france you can easily buy sets that contain lots of basic bricks (full height 2x2, 2x4, etc), and you can buy them individually, in large batches. It has never been easier than today to find those pieces.
- ghostbrainalpha 9y agoIs this what you are looking for from Toy's R Us? https://www.toysrus.com/product?productId=45199456&source=CAPLA_DF:45199456:TRUS&cagpspn=plat_123169BE&camp=PLAPPCG-_-PID123169BE:TRUS&gclid=Cj0KCQiAieTUBRCaARIsAHeLDCQL_R0M1h-e5mDcriTIqIesKUMQKUDxRjuf8xQoaEYoyjVca6-0zNIaAhplEALw_wcB https://www.toysrus.com/product?productId=45199456&source=CA...
- bradleyjg 9y agoThat's the closest I found, but it still has plenty of wheels, doors, windows, half height pieces, round pieces, eyes, knobs, flat on top pieces, etc, etc, etc. The child I was buying for has some sets like that, but I wanted to buy just a large number of regular lego blocks for freeform play. I couldn't find anything on their website like that other than individually picking out single blocks.
- Avshalom 9y agoPretty sure that's never actually been a thing.
- ghostbrainalpha 9y agoThe Lego Store near me has bins separated by color. You can buy as many pieces as you need of each size. Kind of like how you buy bulk candy or nuts at Whole Foods.
- Proven 9y agoNonsense
- ars 9y ago> polyethylene – a soft, durable and flexible plastic that can now be made with ethanol extracted from sugar cane material and, Lego claims, is as durable as conventional plastic. As a bio-plastic, it can be recycled many times, though it is unlikely to be 100% biodegradable. As a bio-plastic? polyethylene? What different does it make if your atoms were cycled through a living plant, or a dead plant in the ground (oil)? From a chemistry point of view it makes no difference. This is 100% greenwashing, and it relies on gullible reporters not to call them out on their nonsense. You can make polyethylene from air. Are we calling it atmo-plastic now?
- typetypetype 9y agoBecause atoms that come from a renewable resource that can be sourced locally are preferred over atoms from non-renewable resources that come from distant lands.
- ars 9y agoWhy? What difference does it make? We don't have a shortage of atoms. From your reply and others I can see why they did this. People actually believe it makes a difference. The environment is doomed. I'm sorry, but if people can't even tell the difference between something that helps the environment, and something that makes no difference, then I don't see how we'll ever make things better.
- matthewmacleod 9y agoThat’s not a very convincing response. It’s like pointing out that electric vehicles are still dependent on fossil fuel power networks for their energy. It’s true, but misses the point that one of the requirements in transitioning to a sustainable economy is decoupling energy production methods from consumption methods. Fossil fuel as the input to a car is bad; fossil fuel as the input to a power plant, that produces electricity that is the input to a car is not perfect, but it is better. Similarly, plastics sourced from biological sources are better.
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- lykahb 9y agoI have fond memories about building stuff with Lego and still remember what they were about. Depending on how this change is reflected in the themes of the Lego sets, it could have more positive environmental impact from educating kids about sustainability than from the direct changes of manufacturing process. More people who prefer sustainable choices over disposable plastics will make a difference.
- agumonkey 9y agoThey could make a recycling plant set :)
- jagger27 9y agoIt's hard to fault Lego for using fossil fuels to make their ABS bricks. The bricks just don't get thrown out and they are kept out of landfills and held onto for decades. I'm sure by 2030 they'll find sustainable precursors for their ABS production line.
- konschubert 9y agoIn fact, by turning it into plastics, aren't they effectively preventing the carbon from being oxidized and released into the atmosphere?
- hsivonen 9y agoHas the ABS for the usual non-flexible bricks changed in a documented way over the years? White bricks from the 1980s get yellowish, but white bricks from the 1990s don't. Current bricks seem shinier and have a bit different feel than bricks from the 1990s (even ones that aren't particularly worn).
- jonathankoren 9y agoI think you just need to wait, or expose them to more sunlight. The actual yellowing is due to a flame retardant.[0] [0] http://www.instructables.com/id/Restoring-yellowed-Stormtrooper-armor/ http://www.instructables.com/id/Restoring-yellowed-Stormtroo...
- oldcynic 9y agoAdditives and anti-oxidants have got better I think. Pretty much all plastic from the 60s - 80s is prone to hardening and yellowing. In the worst cases the surface can start crumbling. See old computer cases for instance.
- juanmirocks 9y agoRegardless of whether this is greenwashing or not, I congratulate Lego for being always on top of innovation. They now hop on the train of environment-friendly and win good publicity with it. They are constantly reinventing themselves.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- aaron695 9y agoFuck me. Lego... Up there with a resource that doesn't lose value. It stays with us forever because it value stays / improves with age. It's like fucking Gold dumb asses. BUT it important it's sustainable??? The weight of a potato is a fuck load in Lego value. A potato's worth of value is what in Lego? $30USD and last for 100 years but a real potato is 20cents and lasts a day? (In western culture it's then worked off at a added expense, in others... yes worth a lot more) Keep at it HN, real smart.
- acd 9y agoProducing sugar cane uses a lot of water and draws a lot of nutrients from the soil. WWF information on sugar cane production. https://www.worldwildlife.org/industries/sugarcane https://www.worldwildlife.org/industries/sugarcane
- beavis2 9y agoI'm guessing it's cheaper. Why else would they?