A piece I wrote for Azure Magazine on sustainable LEGO got me thinking about the toys I played with as a kid, and the kinds of toys I play with today with my daughter. And as I talk about in the piece, LEGO’s familiarity across generations is (one small part) of makes it one of the twentieth century’s finest and most durable toys.
But if it evolves, should we expect leaps and bounds? And how many qualifiers must we add to see it as truly sustainable before the entire idea collapses?
My LEGO was kept in a grey bin shaped like a giant 2×2 round brick. I dumped pieces on my bedroom floor and mangled the colourful plastic pieces into flying cars, canoes, castles. But landscapes were always my favourite. In a box brimming with cubes, rectangles and cylinders, the oddly shaped shrubs were… different.
Different they remain. Just 2 years after establishing its Sustainable Materials Centre to investigate ethically sourced green materials, Lego has unveiled “new” botanical elements – instantly recognizable leaves, bushes and trees whose chemical foundations represent a radical departure for the Danish brand.
Check out the rest of the piece at Azure. Or buy it on newsstands, because the layout is beautiful.
andrew reeves 