Lego has announced it will invest $400 million over the next three years to step up efforts to produce its colourful bricks using sustainable materials instead of oil-based plastic.

The investment will help Lego to reach a target of becoming carbon neutral by 2022 in terms of its production, as well as phase out single-use plastic in packaging by 2025, and replace plastic bricks with ones made from sustainable materials by the end of the decade.

Lego uses some 90,000 tonnes of plastic in its products each year but since 2018 the company has made some of the less rigid parts of Lego sets, such as plants and trees, from bio-polyethylene, a type of plastic made from ethanol, produced using sugarcane.

The material does not work as well for the standard hard bricks that are still made from oil-based plastic. Lego is testing how to use bio-polyethylene for the hard bricks, according to Lego.

Over the last five years, a team of more than 150 engineers and scientists have been testing many different plant-based and recycled materials.

In 2015, the company announced a $150 million investment into using sustainable materials for its products.

Rosa Medea is Life & Soul Magazine’s Chief. She writes about lifestyle including sustainable and green living. She also offers content services to businesses and individuals at Rosamedea.com