Working towards more sustainable LEGO® bricks and elements
In 2025, 52% of the materials we bought to make LEGO bricks and elements came from recycled and renewable sources, largely made possible due to the mass balance approach. And our goal is that this number will keep on increasing.
One of the challenges when sourcing new materials is ensuring they meet our high safety, quality and durability requirements: so that LEGO bricks from today fit with those from yesterday and tomorrow, and can be played with again and again.
But we’re pleased with our progress. Whether mixing plant oils with virgin fossil, or using Brazilian sugarcane and kitchen worktop offcuts, we’re leaving no brick unturned in our mission to make our products more sustainable.
How we do it
Increasing the renewable and recycled materials we buy to make our products means we can decrease the virgin fossil needed to create them. There are two ways can do this:
The first is by using recycled and renewable materials such as sugarcane or kitchen worktop offcuts, directly in some of our bricks and elements. We call this physical content. But, because the market for more sustainable materials is still emerging, we also take a second route: by using the mass balance approach.
Put simply, this is where our suppliers mix renewable raw materials into the material we buy from them, so we can claim attributed content based on the amount of renewable materials we purchase.
Physical content
arMABS
Since 2024, over 900 of our transparent elements, like Lightsabers, windscreens and windows, now contain 20% of recycled materials* from artificial marble kitchen worktops. They will feature in over 85% of LEGO sets once fully transitioned. Clearly genius!
*excluding colourants
bio-PE
In 2018 we started making some of our flexible parts like flowers, botanical elements and minifigure accessories with 89% renewable material from Brazilian sugarcane. We make more than 200 different elements with this material and around half of our LEGO sets contain at least one of these elements. Sweet!
ePOM
We’re designing our robust, rigid LEGO elements – such as our axles – to be made with a plastic called ePOM. The process of making this material uses cutting-edge technology to mix renewable energy and CO2 from bio-waste to create e-methanol. We plan to start using this material in 2026.
Attributed content
What is the mass balance approach?
Mass balance is a way to increase the amount of renewable and recycled input in the materials we buy. Our suppliers mix virgin fossil sources with certified renewable sources (like plant oils) on a large scale, to produce the material we purchase to make LEGO products. Because of the mixing process, we are unable to guarantee a minimum level of sustainable content in our products, however we can claim attributed content from the renewable materials we buy.
This approach helps us to start the transition to using more and more renewable raw materials, but it’s not the end goal. Our ambition is that by 2032, our products will be made from more renewable or recycled materials. But right now the market for high quality sustainable plastic that lasts for decades is still emerging. So, until then, we will continue to join forces with industry to develop solutions and do our part to drive demand for high-quality, certified and traceable raw materials.
