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LEGO to scale up use of renewable plastics in its bricks, with goal of replacing fossil fuels by 2032
LEGO announced plans Wednesday to scale up its use of renewable plastics in the production of its signature bricks, marking a shift away from its reliance on fossil fuels. LEGO has set 2032 as its target date to reach a goal of using entirely renewable and recycled materials.
All LEGO bricks are made from resin, which includes a mix of virgin plastics made from fossil feedstocks, as well as renewable materials. The company says it is working to increase the percentage of certified renewable or recycled materials, which means less oil would go into the bricks that are used to create everything from Titanic replicas to Hogwarts Castle.
LEGO says it has tested over 600 different materials over the last eight years in an effort to make the bricks more sustainable – with varying levels of success. The company uses a production method to manufacture its bricks known as “mass balance,” which involves mixing virgin fossil fuels with renewable materials, like cooking or plant oils.
In the first half of 2024, an average of 22% of the materials used for its products came from “renewable and recycled sources,” up from 12% in 2023, LEGO says.
The transition to greener materials will come at a cost, however. According to Reuters, LEGO is paying 70% more for the renewable resin. But the Danish company says it won’t affect the prices customers see at the toy store.
“The costs of these materials will not be passed on to the consumers – it will be absorbed by the LEGO Group on our bottom line,” the company said in a statement emailed to CBS News.
The announcement was released as part of the company’s earnings report for the first half of 2024. LEGO’s revenue increased by 13%, and consumer sales also grew 14%, according to a release provided to CBS News.
“We delivered double-digit growth on the top- and bottom-line and made significant progress on increasing the amount of sustainable materials used in our products,” said CEO Niels B. Christiansen in a statement.
Over 300 million metric tons of plastic are produced each year globally, but only a small fraction of that is recycled, according to the Department of Energy. And of the 48 million tons of plastic generated in the U.S., only 5% to 6% gets recycled. Plastic is notoriously difficult to recyle because it comes in different varieties that can’t be mixed together. It’s also more expensive to recycle plastic than it is to create virgin plastic.
Oil and gas companies that produce plastic say they are making strides towards a renewable future. ExxonMobil, for example, has paired up with cities like Houston to perform “advanced recycling”. However, as CBS News’ senior national and environmental correspondent Ben Tracy points out, the project has been slow to get off the ground and has received pushback from critics who say the method isn’t a viable solution to the plastics problem.
The industry has been called out in the past for misleading recycling claims.
Melissa Valliant, communications director for Beyond Plastics, said LEGO should look for other materials to make its bricks, or ditch the material altogether given the negative health and environmental hazards associated with them.
“Recycled plastic can be even less safe than traditional plastic when it comes to health risks,” she said in an email to CBS News, pointing to findings from a United Nations report. “Replacing the virgin plastic in LEGO bricks with bioplastic is unlikely to be safer and more environmentally friendly,” she said.
The famous plastic LEGO bricks have been around for 75 years. Originally called “Automatic Binding Bricks,” the company’s trademark toy was invented in 1949, after the company got its first plastic injection-molding machine.
LEGO was founded in 1932 in Denmark by Ole Kirk Kristiansen. The name is an abbreviation of the Danish words “leg godt” which is Danish for “play well.”
A Georgia county’s emergency call center was overwhelmed by calls on Sept. 4 about a school shooting at Apalachee High School that killed four people and wounded nine others, records released Friday by Barrow County show.
Local news organizations report many of the 911 phone calls were not released under public record requests because state law exempts from release calls recording the voice of someone younger than 18 years old. That exemption would cover calls from most of the 1,900 students at the school in Winder, northeast of Atlanta.
Calls spiked around 10:20 a.m., when authorities have said that 14-year-old suspect Colt Gray began shooting. Many calls were answered with an automated message saying there was a “high call volume,” WAGA-TV reported.
One man called 911 after receiving text messages from a girlfriend. He was put on hold for just over 10 minutes because of an influx of calls at the time of the shooting, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
“She hears people yelling outside, so I don’t know if that’s officers in the building or that’s — I don’t know,” he said, adding that she was eventually evacuated out of the school.
Other adults also called 911 after their children contacted them.
“My daughter calling me crying. Somebody go ‘boom, boom, boom, boom,'” one mother said. The 911 operator responded: “Ma’am we have officers out there, OK?”
Parents of students at an elementary school and middle school neighboring Apalachee also flooded 911 seeking information.
“Sir, my daughter goes to school next door to Apalachee. Is there a school shooter?” one caller asked.
“We do have an active situation (at) Apalachee High School right now,” the operator responded. “We have a lot of calls coming in.”
More than 500 radio messages between emergency personnel were also released Friday.
“Active shooter!” an officer yells in one audio clip while speaking with a dispatcher, CNN reported. Another officer responds, “Correct. We have an active shooter at Apalachee High School.”
The shooting killed teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, as well as students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14. Another teacher and eight more students were wounded, with seven of those hit by gunfire.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation reported Thursday that the suspect rode the school bus on the day of the shooting with the assault-style rifle concealed in his backpack.
He then asked a teacher for permission to go to the front office to speak with someone, and when he received it, he was allowed to take his backpack with him, GBI said. He then went to a restroom, where he hid, and then eventually took out the weapon and started shooting, investigators said. A knife was also found on him when he was arrested.
According to investigators, the suspect enrolled at Apalachee High on Aug. 14, and between Aug. 14 and the day of the shooting, he was absent for nine days of school.
The family told CBS News that the suspect’s maternal grandmother had visited the school the day before the massacre to discuss the suspect’s alleged behavioral issues.
The suspect has been charged as an adult with four counts of murder, and District Attorney Brad Smith has said more charges are likely to be filed against him in connection with the wounded. Authorities have also charged his father, 54-year-old Colin Gray, alleging that he gave his son access to the gun when he knew or should have known that the teen was a danger to himself and others.
The 13,000 students at Barrow County’s other schools returned to class Tuesday. The 1,900 students who attend Apalachee are supposed to start returning the week of Sept. 23, officials said Friday.
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