Speed Reads

Better building blocks

Lego plans to become eco-friendly

By 2030, Legos will no longer be made of plastic. Instead, the world's largest toy company will be using a more "sustainable material" to compose their toy blocks, which have been made of a strong plastic called acrylonitrile butadiene styrene since 1963.

While the switch will certainly save the company on its carbon footprint — the production of Legos uses more than 6,000 tons of plastic annually — it won't be cheap. The Lego Group plans to invest $1 billion in their new Lego Sustainable Materials Centre in Denmark, where a team of 100 specialists will conduct research to find the best sustainable replacement for the building blocks' current building material. The center will open over the course of the next two years, and the newly sustainable Legos are set to be ready in 15 years.