When most people think about the polluting effects of petroleum, they'll likely conjure up images of smog emitting from the exhaust pipes of gas-guzzling trucks, but automobiles are only one part of the oil-pollutant equation. Most plastics—from the disposable fork to the Lego piece—are also made out of fossil-fuels.
As electric-car manufacturers like Tesla make great strides in renewable energy on one front, companies like The Lego Group are doing their part to make make their industry eco-friendly. In 2010, plastics made up 2.7 percent of all petroleum consumption in the United States.
Last week, Lego announced plans to invest $150 million into finding a biodegradable material to replace the petroleum-based polymers that make up the miniature building blocks we all know and love.
The tens of billions of Lego pieces produced each year are made out of ABS—an acronym for acrylonitrile, butadiene, and styrene, three polymers synthesized from petroleum—which possesses unique qualities that have proved difficult to duplicate with bio-plastic substitutes.
Earlier attempts by Lego to replace ABS proved futile. For example, a polylactic-acid polymer made from corn lost its rigidity and shape a few weeks after being molded. Lego is redoubling its efforts, though, launching a sustainability center that will assemble a staff of over 100 chemists and other specialists in the material sciences.
