Lego's purchase of mass-balanced polymer surges to 30%

Danish toymaker Lego A/S marked its progress toward its sustainability goals with its earnings report for the first half of 2024, released Aug. 28.

While the company delivered double-digit growth on the top- and bottom-line and significantly outpaced the toy industry, gaining market share, at the same time it continued to advance its initiatives to transition to a more sustainable future.

In the first six months of 2024, 30 percent of all polymer purchased by Lego was certified mass balance, which translates to an estimated average of 22 percent material from renewable and recycled sources.

This is a significant increase from 2023, when, for the full year, 18 percent was certified mass balance which equated to 12 percent sustainable sources. Over the coming years, the company aims to purchase more than half of its raw materials from sustainable sources via the mass balance principle and, by doing so, reducing its use of virgin fossil materials.

Lego abandoned its pilot program to make recycled plastic bricks from bottle-grade recycled PET in 2023 after calculations showed that, adopted at scale, the material would ultimately have a higher carbon footprint. Instead, the company has directed its efforts towards finding bio-based and recycled raw materials to make a more sustainable ABS, as well as investigating alternative solutions. Adopting mass-balanced ABS material, derived from virgin fossil, renewable and recycled raw materials makes it possible to produce toy bricks with a lower carbon footprint.

The company explained that the mass balance approach facilitates the transition to using more and more renewable and recycled raw materials, but that it is not the end goal.

“Our ambition is that by 2032, our products will be made from materials that are renewable or recycled. But right now, there aren’t enough quality recycled and renewable raw materials available,” it said.

Earlier this year, Lego said it planned to “significantly increase” its use of mass balance materials in 2024 and beyond, but without disclosing by how much.

At the time, the company said: “We don’t see mass balance as a long-term solution but for now, as technology around sustainable materials continues to develop, we believe it is the best option to stimulate the raw materials market, which in turn will help us to make our products more sustainable.”

Lego officials also have previously noted that the company has questions about how it should market mass balance content to consumers, telling an industry conference last year it did not want to be labeled as greenwashing.

Some governments, as well, are urging caution in how mass balance content is advertised to consumers.

Other Lego initiatives included the launch of a new Supplier Sustainability Program requiring suppliers to set incremental targets to reduce emissions and an annual carbon emissions reduction KPI linked to employee bonuses. Lego also said it was further expanding its Lego brick takeback program — known as Lego Replay — to the United Kingdom and would continue to pilot models in the U.S. and Europe.