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The average weight of a lego is 2.5 grams. 32 billion bricks works out to ~5,500 metric tons of legos per year. Worldwide. That's less than a rounding error
by justrealist 3y ago
The average weight of a lego is 2.5 grams. 32 billion bricks works out to ~5,500 metric tons of legos per year. Worldwide. That's less than a rounding error compared to any other kind of plastic production.
Let's have a sense of proportion.
- mytailorisrich 3y agoThis doesn't matter. Plastics are 'bad' and Lego is plastics. This is mainly an image problem.
- jonhohle 3y agoI know your first line was sarcastic, but Lego should really be held up as what plastic can offer for sustainability. As I commented elsewhere, I have very few other 50+ year objects in my house, let alone toys that my kids actively play with. The next closest thing might be Atari cartridges at 40 years old, but with few exceptions, kids don’t really care about those either (coincidentally plastic shelled). I suppose I have vinyl records that are at least 50 years old (also plastic). I suppose we also have wood and glass furniture and glass and ceramics that are that old or older. That well designed plastic items can have the longevity of heirloom furniture should be a positive selling point.
- mytailorisrich 3y agoYes, Lego's product is very durable (not sure about sustainability), I think mostly because it is very stable: bricks are simple and they don't change. Well, nowadays they seem to be doing a lot of custom bricks for specific models but by and large bricks can be kept across generations. My previous comment wasn't sarcastic. I think the main issue for Lego is that plastics have a bad rep. They can't say "who cares 5,000 tons is nothing" as that would be PR suicide and they can't stop using plastics, either... hence them trying to move to recycled plastics or at the very least to be seen to be seriously trying to do something.