Toymaker Lego is on track to replace the fossil fuels used in making its ABS bricks with more expensive renewable and recycled plastic. CEO Neils Christiansen said Lego is on schedule for half of its resin to be certified as sustainable by 2026, up from 30 percent this year.
Christiansen there currently isn’t enough quality recycled and renewable raw material available, but he said Lego is willing to pay a premium of up to 70 percent more for certified renewable resin in an effort to encourage suppliers to boost production.
Also in Material Insights, an electrical contractor in Minnesota is suing PVC pipe makers over what he alleges is price fixing, and he’s seeking to make the case a class action lawsuit. The case names pipe makers that collectively control about 90 percent of the U.S. wholesale market for PVC municipal water pipe and 95 percent of the U.S. wholesale market for PVC electrical conduit.
The lawsuit alleges the COVID-19 pandemic provided the defendants the opportunity to fix prices, and that they used PetroChem’s PVC & Pipe Weekly Report to exchange price signaling statements and competitively sensitive information.
Finally, Covestro is showing its commitment to the U.S. market by investing more than $40 million into its Pittsburgh campus in the next year – its biggest investment in the complex in decades. The project is happening even as Covestro’s parent company is expecting to be purchased by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.