First sustainable Lego pieces to go on sale

&gt; 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.<p>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)?<p>From a chemistry point of view it makes no difference.<p>This is 100% greenwashing, and it relies on gullible reporters not to call them out on their nonsense.<p>You can make polyethylene from <i>air</i>. Are we calling it atmo-plastic now?

It&#x27;s hard to fault Lego for using fossil fuels to make their ABS bricks. The bricks just don&#x27;t get thrown out and they are kept out of landfills and held onto for decades. I&#x27;m sure by 2030 they&#x27;ll find sustainable precursors for their ABS production line.

Regardless 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.

I&#x27;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.

Has 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&#x27;t. Current bricks seem shinier and have a bit different feel than bricks from the 1990s (even ones that aren&#x27;t particularly worn).

Producing sugar cane uses a lot of water and draws a lot of nutrients from the soil.<p>WWF information on sugar cane production. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.worldwildlife.org&#x2F;industries&#x2F;sugarcane" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.worldwildlife.org&#x2F;industries&#x2F;sugarcane</a>

A little off topic, but I recently found out that you essentially can&#x27;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&#x27;t sell them anymore.<p>+ I.e. full height 2x2, 2x3, 2x4

I 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.

I&#x27;m guessing it&#x27;s cheaper. Why else would they?