RE: LEGO has just announced that they will release their first set of bricks made from "green plastic" later this year!
Hi @shaka.
First off, I do not believe that this is just a PR move to get good faith from consumers or increase their sales in short-term. Back in 2015 they announced their new division "LEGO Sustainable Materials Centre" that got 100DKK / $135m USD that recruited over 100 people to work on making the Lego Group more sustainable. This is a huge sum, so I am at least personally convinced that they are being very serious about their carbon footprint responsibility.
Is any information provided how longevity and robustness compare between conventional and "green" bricks?
Current lego bricks remain completely functional for decades and can thus be passed on from one generation to the next. Will this be possible with the green "bricks", too? Abrasion resistance will be a key parameter to evaluate the actual energetic and environmental benefit of the new bricks.
That's a great question, and in hindsight I realize that I should have included a paragraph or two more about the properties of the "green plastic".
The green plastic is often refereed to as biopolyethylene (regular polyethylene is the most common type of plastic). The process of making these two are (simplified):
Biopolyethylene: Ethanol is extracted from sugar canes or other botanical biomass. The ethanol gets dehydrated to become ethylene, and is then made into (bio)polyethylene by addition polymerization.
Polyethylene is basically made when ethane and propane from crude oil and natural gas is steam cracked. This creates ethylene, and this can be made into polyethylene the same way as above.
So, the two types of plastic are actually the same chemically, and it is the manufacturing process that is different. Once the ethylene is made, it does not really matter if it was made from fossil fuels or botanical matter. This means that they should be exactly the same quality as the old Lego bricks, at least in theory.
Keep in mind that I'm an ecologist and not a chemist, so this is not really my area of expertise, but I hope this cleared up some of your concerns.
Best regards from @valth
I guess my sceptical stance derives from everyday observations, that bio or green products often (not always ofc) are worse products at higher price compared to the conventional standard. Bio-degradable bags for organic waste being one of the more striking examples. I'm still looking for one that doesn't already degrade within my waste bin :)
Regarding Lego, I fully agree that it seems rather unlikely that they would risk their outstanding reputation with such a move. A poor product quality would be revealed immediately and upset millions of customers. Only the german automotive industry can afford that...
This is a great addition to your post. In theory, if the polymer would exactly be the same then so should be the quality of the bricks. However, in chemistry, a different manufacturing process always means a different product, e.g. in terms of impurities. Now, in particular when it comes to polymerization, small amounts in whatever remnants can have a measurable impact on the products quality.
Anyway, I'm confident that Lego has done enough stress testing to ensure flawless quality for their bio bricks.
Hi again, @shaka.
Yeah, I get what you mean. I sometimes find my biodegradeable waste bags to have been torn while still in the bin. It's really frustrating when I have to clean the bin to remove old food..
It unfortunately seems like we have to choose a trade-off for most "green" products these days; either we get it cheap and durable, or we get it from a sustainable source. It would be truly amazing if we managed to create a type of bioplastic that was just as good, or even better, than regular fossil fuel plastic.
That's a good point. There's always a gap between theory and real life, so I guess it all boild down to whether or not we have good faith in the company that attempts this. While I want to trust that Lego is certain about this, I also think you are right in questioning them. Maybe this is also the reason why they are only going to be making 1 - 2 % of the new bricks from this green plastic; to kind of test them in real situations before increasing the production? I'm sure they have tested it a lot in the labs, but there can also be a gap between the lab and real life as well.
That was a wonderful conversation @shaka and @valth. The questions that I had in my mind after reading the article were discussed clearly in this conversation. Thank you.
I'm glad you got your questions answered :) I guess I should probably have added a bit about this in the main post!