Everyone's favorite brick toy company, LEGO, has rolled out a prototype for bricks made from PET plastic from discarded bottles. The new prototype lives up to the high standards set and maintained by the toy company for decades.
Over the past three years, scientists and engineers worked to create a sustainable solution for LEGO products, and finally, after trying over 250 formulations, they have created a brick that meets several of their play requirements.
"We are super excited about this breakthrough," says the Vice President of Environmental Responsibility at LEGO, Tim Brooks. "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."
It will still be quite some time before the sustainable bricks will be available in stores, though, as the next phase of testing is estimated to take at least a year. Currently, the company has a patent pending on the material formulation.
Last year, the company announced that it would begin to remove all single-use plastic from its boxes and was going to invest up to $400 million over the next three years to accelerate its sustainability options.