Over the last three years, the LEGO Group has succeeded in its ‘zero waste to landfills’ goal, keeping trash out of landfills and minimising the company’s environmental impact.
The LEGO Group has been conscious of its environmental impact for many years now and over the last three the company has put an emphasis on keeping waste out of landfills, now celebrating sending zero waste to landfills for three years running.
In 2024, 96% of the waste the LEGO Group generated from the production of LEGO bricks was either reused, recycled or recovered. That percentage has fluctuated slightly over the last three years, but the LEGO Group has remained within the threshold for ‘zero waste to landfills’, with less than 1% of waste generated at the company being destined for such an environmentally unhealthy fate.
In addition to this, the amount of waste the company sends to incineration (without energy recovery) has decreased every year since 2022.
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The LEGO Group has implemented creative ways to reduce its waste across its many factories all over the globe, from its home turf in Denmark all the way to China and Mexico. Factories in those three countries reduced waste by more than 160 tons last year by using digital solutions to figure out which raw materials can be recirculated and to apply continuous improvement tools to increase efficiency across the factories.
Czechia found its own unique solution to combat unnecessary waste: Employees discovered a way to close a loop for the cardboard cores the packaging materials are delivered in. This allowed them to create a system where the cores are returned to the supplier instead of treated like waste and sent to a recycling centre. These efforts helped to reduce overall waste at the Czechia factory by 39 tons in 2024.
And across all factories, leftover plastic and raw materials from making LEGO elements is reused in the next batch, ensuring that nothing goes unused. And if scraps can’t be given a use, they’re sent to other industries to find a home, whether that be in a new car or laptop.
Reducing waste from factory production is just one aspect of the LEGO Group’s commitment to sustainability and lessening its environmental impact. The company recently began sourcing material from a new e-methanol facility, is actively seeking more sustainable water solutions and is spearheading important collaborations to help more companies reach a greener and more sustainable future.
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