According to this article: http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/23/news/companies/lego-sustainable-material/index.html , Lego will invest $1 billion over the next 15 years to replace plastic with materials better for the environment . This raises many questions. Will the quality drop? Will the bricks be more brittle? Will the sets be cheaper or more expensive? Will the bricks deteriorate over a long period of time? What do you think?

I read an article about this a while back; a good portion of the research that's going into this project will ensure that the bricks made of the new materials will be more or less indistinguishable from our current ones.

I read an article about this a while back; a good portion of the research that's going into this project will ensure that the bricks made of the new materials will be more or less indistinguishable from our current ones.

I'd hope so! If not, they could destroy the brand!

a good portion of the research that's going into this project will ensure that the bricks made of the new materials will be more or less indistinguishable from our current ones.

Very skeptical here. But maybe plastic will be so expensive by then that normal bricks would be unaffordable.

That could be a fun job in researching materials that have the same properties as ABS plastic. I guess they have to be forward looking to a time when the world's crude oil supply for making plastics is scarce and too expensive.

I do recall that it's some sort of plant-product based resin - something renewable, at least.

I guess they have to be forward looking to a time when the world's crude oil supply for making plastics is scarce and too expensive.

I'm actually wondering if it'll happen sort of like the premise of Gundam 00 - that is, alternative energy (in this case, a giant ring of solar satellites around the earth) makes energy so cheap that petroleum falls out of favor for making fuel, and is limited in use for plastics and such. I think we're moving in that direction with an increased focus on renewable energy and fuel efficiency, but it took space elevators for the solar power system to really take off in-story.

The R&D lab has been going for over 50 years now, and the plastic was changed once before already. Cellulose Acetate bricks from the 50's, 60's and 70's work fine with today's ABS bricks and nobody seems to know the difference even if you ask (and what little difference there is I think is generally chalked up to them just being "old"). Given that they already have one such change under their belts and are investing a substantial sum of money (it's 1B DKK ~= $150M USD) in materials research, I'm pretty confident that they understand the importance of doing it the right way. The real question is what kind of materials they'll be able to come up with!

The R&D lab has been going for over 50 years now, and the plastic was changed once before already. Cellulose Acetate bricks from the 50's, 60's and 70's work fine with today's ABS bricks and nobody seems to know the difference even if you ask (and what little difference there is I think is generally chalked up to them just being "old"). Given that they already have one such change under their belts and are investing a substantial sum of money (it's 1B DKK ~= $150M USD) in materials research, I'm pretty confident that they understand the importance of doing it the right way. The real question is what kind of materials they'll be able to come up with!

Did you ever hold those CA bricks in your own hands? I've got a whole bunch of them and they are shrunk and warped beyond recognition and certainly don't fit my post-1963 ABS Lego. They even can't be fitted on themselves anymore. So there was a very good reason to change to ABS and they must be very sure that they have a very good alternative before they change the material again.

On the other hand, Lego already makes tons of bricks out of polycarbonate and those bricks don't pose too may problems (besides putting a light saber into a cone and it getting stuck).

Lego is one of the industry leaders. This means it is normal for them to be doing R&D to pioneer new technologies and materials. Forget the bricks. Just imagine the potential windfall for holding the patents on a new ABS like plastic replacement? This is research that Lego has been doing in one way or another for pretty much the length of their existence. Find and develop new better cheaper materials. It isn't some astonishing new thing.

They are not necessarily going to change the plastic (ABS). If they can find other routes to making the same chemicals necessary for production then it may be greener. For example, vegetable derived ethanol (already can be done), ethanol to butadiene (can be done, Russia was already doing this during WW2). While all steps to greener production for one of the components can be done, the others need to be worked on. Also they need to be able to do it large scale and financially.

I'm just concerned because I go to flea markets, thrift stores, ect and if Lego makes their Lego bricks biodegradable after let's say 15 years of their life than there's no Point of buying vintage lego that will be vintage in the future

I'm just concerned because I go to flea markets, thrift stores, ect and if Lego makes their Lego bricks biodegradable after let's say 15 years of their life than there's no Point of buying vintage lego that will be vintage in the future

Lego's goal is not to make them biodegradable. Their goal is to create a more responsibly sourced plastic or plastic substitute, that retains all or most of ABS's physical properties while not relying on declining oil supplies. The difficulty of finding such a perfect match is why Lego is spending so much money on this long-term goal in the first place—they're not going to be satisfied with anything less durable or high-quality than what they're currently using.

This article has created a lot of confusion due to being so inspecific about what is meant by "sustainable", but rest assured—Lego does not want their products to decay any more than their fans do.

[...] but rest assured—Lego does not want their products to decay any more than their fans do.

I wouldn't be surprised if current bricks decay less than fans do.

Yeah, there's really no reason to worry about the quality of any replacement materials. Trying to find something with the same qualities as ABS is why the time scale is so long and the price so high. There are plenty of plastic substitutes available already, but they just don't behave the same way.

Did you ever hold those CA bricks in your own hands? I've got a whole bunch of them and they are shrunk and warped beyond recognition and certainly don't fit my post-1963 ABS Lego. They even can't be fitted on themselves anymore. So there was a very good reason to change to ABS and they must be very sure that they have a very good alternative before they change the material again.

On the other hand, Lego already makes tons of bricks out of polycarbonate and those bricks don't pose too may problems (besides putting a light saber into a cone and it getting stuck).

Er, yes, I have a decent pile of CA bricks, and they're mostly fine. Some feel a little brittle or look a bit old, but they work OK. Some have unreasonably high clutch power (probably due to some shrinkage), and a few are definitely warped a bit, but nothing like "shrunk and warped beyond recognition" (though I have seen examples of that) - so while the CA bricks are certainly more prone to some warping than ABS, there must be some environment/storage factors at play as well.

Regardless, the switch to ABS was a good thing for a number of reasons, including it's stability vs CA. I'm also confident that whatever new method they find to make ABS or whatever new material they use will be up to their standards. Perhaps they can even find something that has most of the qualities but is just the tiniest bit more flexible than ABS so we don't continue to have this issue with hairline cracks even on new pieces, or maybe it'll be something that can be colored more consistently. There are definitely areas of improvement to be had over the current state of their ABS production, so who knows!

According to this article: http://money.cnn.com...rial/index.html , Lego will invest ... the next 15 years to replace plastic with materials better for the environment .

That is just plain false, the article does not say that at all. They are not replacing plastic. They are looking at reducing the environmental impact of ABS and possibly alternative plastics.

That is just plain false, the article does not say that at all. They are not replacing plastic. They are looking at reducing the environmental impact of ABS and possibly alternative plastics.

*cough*

http://www.plasticsnews.com/article/20140218/NEWS/140219915/lego-looking-for-a-sustainable-replacement-for-abs

*cough*

http://www.plasticsn...acement-for-abs

Completely different article, from more than a year ago.

Yeah, but they are looking at at least replacing ABS with an alternative (presumably if ABS turns out to be unsustainable for the long run). I'd say that's close enough!

ABS will probably indeed become unsustainable eventually (not for tons of decades though). They've got to future-proof and the earlier the better. Companies that fail to do so die (or countries for that matter, like what is probably going to happen to Saudi Arabia once enough of the world goes off oil).

If they do go through with this research, there's a material I can imagine that could possibly work. Just recently, (I forgot where) a university engineering project discovered a way to make injection molded wood, by processing the the waste linin, which is what holds wood together, into a recycled naturally sourced plastic type material. I'm not sure how effective the original injection molded wood material would be, but I can imagine they can tweak the formula and add additives, to make it more effective.

So far, there's two routes to creating a sustainable product that Lego could look into: either replacing the plastic entirely with a sustainably-sourced material (currently the focus of their research) or to find a way to manufacture the components of ABS plastic in a sustainable matter. Is that about it, or have I missed anything?

Complex molecules can be from simple molecules. Theoretically it could be possible to make ABS from different starting material than cruel oil. The trick would be find materials and processes that are economically feasible.