--- description: The world's largest toy company plans on hiring 100 specialists devoted to finding and implementing sustainable materials by 2030. title: Lego Wants to Replace Plastic Blocks With Sustainable Materials image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc0be1e640ba8cae6/698857e50a4a2206e59c4d61/lego.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Companies](/tag/companies/) ## Companies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Lego Wants to Replace Plastic Blocks With Sustainable Materials by [Jacob Koffler](/author/jacob-koffler/) ## Jacob Koffler Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 23, 2015 4:16 PM CUT  Lego bricks sit on a table in the cafeteria at the Naver Corp. headquarters in Seongnam, South Korea, on April 28, 2015. Lego bricks sit on a table in the cafeteria at the Naver Corp. headquarters in Seongnam, South Korea, on April 28, 2015.Bloomberg/Getty Images by [Jacob Koffler](/author/jacob-koffler/) ## Jacob Koffler Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 23, 2015 4:16 PM CUT The Lego Group wants to replace the plastic in their products with a “sustainable material” by 2030, the company [announced](http://www.lego.com/en-us/aboutus/news-room/2015/june/sustainable-materials-centre "undefined"). The world’s largest toy company will invest $1 billion in their new LEGO Sustainable Materials Centre in Denmark, which will be devoted to finding and implementing new sustainable alternatives for their current building materials. Lego plans on hiring 100 specialists for the center. Legos have been made with a strong plastic known as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene since 1963\. The company uses more than 6,000 tons of plastic annually to manufacture its products, according to [NBC News](http://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/no-more-plastic-legos-company-searches-sustainable-material-n379976 "undefined"). There is no official definition of a sustainable material. Changing the raw material could have a large effect on Lego’s carbon footprint, especially considering that only 10% of the carbon emissions from Lego products come from its factories. The other 90% is produced from the extraction and refinement of raw materials, as well as distribution from factories to toy stores. The company has already taken steps to lower its carbon footprint, including a reduction of packaging size and an investment in an offshore wind farm. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3931946/lego-sustainable-materials/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3931946/lego-sustainable-materials/"},"headline":"Lego Wants to Replace Plastic Blocks With Sustainable Materials","datePublished":"2015-06-23T16:16:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T08:26:57.810Z","description":"The company plans to spend $1 billion and hire 100 specialists to find an alternative","url":"https://time.com/3931946/lego-sustainable-materials/","keywords":["Companies","climate change","Lego","Business topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc0be1e640ba8cae6/698857e50a4a2206e59c4d61/lego.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jacob Koffler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jacob-koffler/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc0be1e640ba8cae6/698857e50a4a2206e59c4d61/lego.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"lego bricks","caption":"lego bricks","creditText":"Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/companies/","name":"Companies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3931946/lego-sustainable-materials/","name":"Lego Wants to Replace Plastic Blocks With Sustainable Materials"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Sights And Sounds Of The Solar System","description":"NASA's Deep Space Network has been receiving images and sounds from space probes for 50 years.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/35PDyDwj/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-01-06T15:17:55.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/35PDyDwj.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3931946/lego-sustainable-materials/","duration":"PT3M47S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3931946/lego-sustainable-materials/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```