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LEGO Looking for a Sustainable Replacement for ABS
By Rhoda Miel
February 18, 2014
ORLANDO, FL - LEGO A/S is setting a target to use a sustainable resin in its
signature bricks by 2030, replacing ABS.
The search for that new resin will not be easy, though, said Allan Rasmussen,
senior project manager for LEGO. Not only must the selected material be able to
meet the same characteristics as the locking building blocks, they must also
blend seamlessly with bricks already in children’s hands.
“I need to find a material that is just as good as this one,” Rasmussen said. “I
need to find a material that will be just as good in 50 years, because these are
passed down from generation to generation.”
Speaking at Innovation Takes Root 2014 in Orlando on Feb. 18, Rasmussen said the
sustainability quest is in its early stages, but the Danish company already has
tested some bricks using an impact modified polylactic acid are “very, very
close.” A problem with a post-molding “creep,” however, means that a few weeks
after they are molded the bricks do not click and stick together as well as they
should.
The ability to stay clicked together until a child separates them - what LEGO
terms the “clutch power” - is so key to LEGO that it has a specific testing
system for it.
Some of the issues with those tests may be that the machines are set up to meet
the requirements based on ABS and are not compatible with other resins,
Rasmussen said, but the clutch power is only one issue facing any replacement.
LEGO, based in Billund, Denmark, has been using ABS for its bricks since the
1960s, following a brief period using a cellulose acetate.
It uses more than 6,000 tons of plastic each year - 70 percent of it ABS, “so
that’s why I’m most interested in (replacing) that,” Rasmussen said.
It operates more than 5,000 molds on more than 1,000 injection molding presses
at global production sites in Denmark, Mexico and Hungary. When LEGO expands to
Jiaxing, China, it will specifically be to supply the local market there, he
said, so the company needs to ensure it has a global material supplier for all
those locations once it is ready to change its resin.
It wants a resin that will make both economic sense as well as hitting
environmental targets, and wants to ensure that it is coming from a non-food
feedstock base so the business doesn’t find itself facing questions about using
crops for toys vs. food.
The company also requires dual sourcing, with product available from multiple
production locations, so that it can provide resin from another site if there
are any problems.
In addition, its toys must meet the standards written within 3,082 pages worth
of legislation regulating toys worldwide.
So obviously, there are major supply chain issues LEGO must consider before
making any material changes.
“If I were to say that we need to change the machines because something has a
different shrink rate, I’m not going to be a very popular guy,” he said. Then
add the complications of matching the look and feel of generations of previous
production.
LEGO has to carefully track color blending to control colors, so that a red
brick molded today will match a red brick molded 30 years ago or, for that
matter, a red brick the company will make 30 years from now.
“When I get to a conference like this, I always hear people say: ‘Oh, LEGO.
That’s great. I played with LEGO when I was a kid, and now I’ve passed it on to
my son and to his son now, and it lasts. It’s perfect.’ And I’m really torn
between that,” Rasmussen said. “On the one side, I want to say: ‘Thank you. We
make a good product.’ On the other side, I want to say: ‘You’ve just shown why
it is my job is so damn difficult.‘”
Source:
PlasticNews.com
-end of report-
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