The Lego Group has stopped a project to make blocks from recycled bottles on the grounds that the new material will cause even greater carbon emissions, reports the London Financial Times, reports SEEbiz.eu.

The Danish company announced in 2021 that it was investigating whether it could produce PET plastic (polyethylene terephthalate) cubes, the quality of which is not reduced by recycling. Recycled plastic was supposed to replace oil-based acrylonitrile butadiene styrene. Research has shown that PET plastic would cause higher carbon emissions by the end of the product's life as it would require new equipment, they told the FT.

PET plastics need ingredients added to make them safe and durable, but they also require large amounts of energy to process and dry, explained Tim Brooks, head of sustainability at The Lego Group.

"You can compare it to trying to make a bicycle out of wood instead of steel," added Brooks. CEO Nils Christiansen told the Financial Times that he hopes to discover a "magic material" that will solve sustainability problems.