Sustainable LEGO Advent Calendars offer longer playtime

The brand has created a short film that inspires children (and adults alike) to repurpose their new sustainable tray into something entirely different – allowing it to live on beyond the holiday season (link to film). This move from the toy manufacturer, plays on a child’s preoccupation with often enjoying the wrapping paper and packaging just as much as their presents and provides an opportunity for them to get creative during the festivities.

The LEGO advent calendars, available in three themes: LEGO® City, LEGO Friends and LEGO Star Wars™, contain a small LEGO model in each of the 24 compartments of the tray, for each day leading up to Christmas from December 1st. The new trays are a replacement for non-recyclable black plastic trays, saving more than a million plastic trays from going to landfills.

“We design LEGO products to last for generations, but we recognise that much of our packaging will be thrown away. We want to give children and parents every opportunity to recycle, and we are pleased that this Christmas millions of children will be able to recycle the trays and boxes of their advent calendar,” says Tim Brooks, Vice President, Environmental Responsibility.

Through the short film, the LEGO Group demonstrates how the paper tray can easily be reused by bringing to life how to create a Christmas scene leaving Mum and Dad uninterrupted time to attend to the turkey.

How to create a Christmas Penguin from your LEGO Advent Calendar

Step 1: Open your LEGO advent calendar
Step 2: Take out the sustainable tray
Step 3: Cut off cup using a pair of scissors
Step 4: Remove base of cup by cutting around with a pair of scissors
Step 5: Draw a chest shape on one side of the cup using a pencil
Step 6: Take some black paint
Step 7: Paint cup black on all sides, apart from the chest shape you have drawn out.
Step 8: Take some orange felt
Step 9: Draw out a triangle beak and jagged feet
Step 10: Cut out the beak and feet
Step 11: Take some googly eyes and stick on black part of cup on top of white chest
Step 12: Stick on the orange triangular nose just below the eyes
Step 13: Glue on the feet to the inside of the bottom of the cup, so feet stick out.
Step 14: Voila!

Uses for the paper tray go far beyond just creating fun holiday characters. Children can also use the paper pulp tray to grow plants. The compartments in the tray are ideal to fill with soil to germinate a seedling which children can later plant in a garden, and make a positive impact on the environment.

The trays and boxes consist of 100% Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paper, and can be recycled along with the box. The paper pulp tray is being phased in during 2017 and be available in approximately 60% of advent calendars. The advent calendar paper trays are one of the product innovations to improve the sustainability of LEGO packaging. The LEGO Group is working on improved product labelling to promote correct recycling, and recycled or bio based plastic packaging, among other initiatives.

“The LEGO Group’s ambition is for product packaging to be the right size, renewable and recyclable. The advent calendar trays are one of the changes aimed to improve the sustainability of LEGO packaging. We want to make great play products for children, while protecting Earth’s finite resources for future generations. As children shape their own worlds with LEGO bricks, we want to play our part and we know that from the big to the small, every single step in our desire to find sustainable materials counts,” says Tim Brooks, Vice President, Environmental Responsibility.

Since 2013, the average size of LEGO boxes has been reduced by 14%. Using smaller boxes has so far saved approximately 10.000 truckloads, over 20.000 tonnes of cardboard, and CO2 emissions by 35.000 tonnes.