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

The earnings report for the first half of 2024 released today by Danish toymaker Lego Group contained a number of highlights, particularly as regards the company’s progress towards its sustainability goals.

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 Group 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 programme to make recycled plastic bricks from bottle-grade rPET last year 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 for producing 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.

Other initiatives included the launch of a new Supplier Sustainability Programme 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 programme - known as Lego Replay, to the UK and would continue to pilot models in the USA and Europe.