Although the Lego brand hasn't found yet a solution for the inevitable rogue Lego brick that always ends up being stepped on with a bare foot, the company has been actively looking into ways of making their seemingly perfect toy bricks a better product.
According to a news report by the Curbed, Lego, the Danish toy maker announced that they will be spending $150 million towards the research and development of sustainable alternatives to the current ABS (acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene) plastic materials that they have been using in their toys. Fast Company announced last week that their solution is to take oil out of its supply chain by making a massive investment in materials research. This is an effort towards reducing the impact that plastic toys have on the environment.
Ultimately, the company's goal is to not only find the solution, but also put it into production by 2030. In addition to establishing a new facility that's dedicated to the cause, the company will be hiring a team of 100 employees to develop a new environmentally-friendly 'recipe' for the Lego toy, they would be seeking to hire a range of scientists for the project, including chemists, materials specialists, engineers, and parts designers. The company also announced that they will be redesigning all of their packaging as well.
Lego owner Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen sent his utmost desire to change plastics stems from its environmental goals. "Finding alternatives to the materials used to make these bricks would significantly reduce the Lego Group's impact on the planet."
According to the news reported by the Cen Acs.Org, the company used 77,000 metric tons of raw materials to create more than 60 billion Lego pieces in the year 2014. Lego material supplier Styrolution said that "the building-block raw material has to be made to an exact specification so that the blocks lock together and then come apart with just the right amount of force."
"It is not your run-of-the-mill ABS," a company executive said.