Every type of plastic used by LEGO (2022)
bricknerd.com
bricknerd.com
https://www.lego.com/en-us/sustainability/product-safety/mat...
https://web.archive.org/web/20211107184633/https://www.lego....
Like if you were to create a (okay, not-so) Periodic Table of Plastics, you might as well populate it with Lego parts because most of us are familiar with the bricks and their characteristics.
(And, crazy, who knew Lego used Bakelite at one time?)
the kids want toys and build whatever comes to mind phase
or the adults get childhood memories phase
or the adults get elaborate expensive models with a few thousands of bricks that are to complex for kids phase
I want to sit there and play with them. Create elaborate worlds. Have crazy car crashes, recreate die hard, and have plane crashes and other nutty things.
The sad part is I'm in my 30s.
The sad part is, many who are in their 30s, forgot how to play and have fun.
For some, there is no deeper meaning to be found.
At that point, you can either choose to sit and do nothing (die), or engage and play (live). Since the choice is meaningless anyway, you might as well follow the path that gives you happiness. Life is simply more pleasant that way. Along this road lies the pleasure of enjoying things as you did when you were a child, while also uncovering and solving new mysteries (as you did as a child).
I'm 50 but I've got an eight-years old daughter. So this week-end we're building the Lego Ducati Panigale bike (bought new) and we also ordered two used Lego "elves" sets.
My daughter is really into Lego.
And it's a blast from the past to see her play with my very own original space sets from the seventies (I think they're from the seventies).
So yeah: having a kid (or niece/nephew) is the perfect excuse to play Lego again!
Fun to make and all but limited "replay value". It's a different kind of satisfaction.
† Which ironically makes "plasticizers" actually elasticizers. Plastics are polymers named for how they undergo plastic deformation — "bending and going white", as you say — at pretty low stress levels. "Plasticizers" are ironically chemicals that make plastics into materials that undergo elastic deformation — flopping around without damage — instead.
Anybody any experience with this?
Storing old bricks with new shouldn’t really matter. ABS off gases but mainly when heated. Most damage to ABS is irreversible. It’s not a great long-term material and it has many shortcomings.
After this long inside a car (little UV exposure I'm guessing, but lots of heat exposure) the strength of 1 to 2 mm thick ABS is "empty egg shell" strength. Really really brittle.
The lego has been stored in cardboard boxes first in the attic in my parents house, and after that in miscellaneous cellars and then an attic again.
I think their initial goal was sustainable Legos by 2030. I applaud their decision but it seems it’s been hard to materialize. Bummer but I hope they keep pushing.
If they can come up with a replacement plastic that has a lower environmental impact, that'd be great. However, they shouldn't use a less environmentally friendly alternative just because it's not based on fossil fuels. That would just be greenwashing.
Greenwashing, also called "green sheen", is a form of advertising or marketing spin in which green PR and green marketing are deceptively used to persuade the public that an organization's products, aims and policies are environmentally friendly.
Green-manufactured LEGO doesn't qualify..
Edit: @beloch: got it, thanks for educating me.
* This is done since a landfill has its own issues, and recycling plastics does not work.
I was a bit confused when the author threw this bit in at the end because it seems silly to think Lego is a contributor to that in any material way.
It is an interesting example of why the pollution problem is hard. Here we are not even talking about anything essential for the quality life, not even comfort. That's basically "just a toy". But, theoretically, would we be willing to give it up if we don't find an environmentally friendly way to make it?
If you threw yours out, that's your fault, and does not mean there needs to be an environmentally friendly way to make legos (which will undoubtedly be functionally worse and not last as long).
As for environmentally friendly alternatives, the German company Anker offers “real” bricks made of a mixture of quartz sand, chalk, and linseed oil.
Barbies break. Toy cars break or the models get out of fashion. Electronic stuff is broken or severely out of date 20 years later. Sport equipment can be durable, but usually holds for less than 10 years.
In the grand scheme of things, Lego is completely fine, we have hundreds of more wasteful one-time-plastic usages.
Legos are more profitable than gold in terms of investment - literally. So yeah, throwing away Legos is really really dumb.
To prevent decomposition, use breathable enclosures and store in a low temperature and low relative humidity. Proper storage and handling practices, particularly using gloves and storing in low light environments, can prevent vinegar syndrome almost entirely.
These are learnings gleaned from those involved in the historical preservation of acetate photographic films.
Same question for belts that you find in record players and tape recorders- they turn to goo.
The closest you can get IMO is the Roman Colosseum. It's mostly made of large blocks with a series of notches in them. Metal bars are placed in the notches so the blocks can move slightly in relation to each other, but not so much as to fall apart.
They stack these 4 or 5 high and create huge U-shaped corrals for various types of metals.
My town does something similar to store rock stalk for the winter—these blocks are stacked and a pre-fab roof is placed directly on top.
To my knowledge, there is no mortar or rebar of any kind, and it can be undone and reworked into another configuration with just a forklift.
These are meant to be temporary, but have been there for >8 and >5 years respectively.
Somewhat related: The famed "Jersey Divider" is cast in a similar way, albeit without any consideration for vertical stacking.
I've heard these called 'Benton Blocks', though, looking that up now, that seems to be a brand [0], not sure if there's a more specific generic term other than 'concrete block'.
> Somewhat related: The famed "Jersey Divider" is cast in a similar way, albeit without any consideration for vertical stacking.
I think Jersey Barriers are usually re-enforced with steel rebar and all the ones that I've seen have a steel cable running through them with a loop at either end to link up to the one next to it, by dropping a pole or similar through both sets of loops, to create a continuous wall. (Though, interestingly, the Wikipedia article [1] doesn't seem to mention that feature.)
[0] https://betonblockusa.com/us/products/concrete-blocks [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_barrier
An important consideration when it comes to food safety is that your it doesn't become a breeding ground for bacteria. That's why FDM 3D prints are usually not food safe no matter what they are made off. For your Lego lunchbox, assuming the bricks themselves were food safe, you would probably need to regularly take the box apart and wash each brick individually.
That being said it probably won't kill you, but don't expect Lego or anyone in a position of authority to tell you that's fine.
It'll come out perfectly clean without any damage.
I assume you're from the US? What is it that seems to promote such food safety fear over there? It's really noticeable in 3D printing and food preservation communities/recipes.
I assume not porousness, since by far the largest pores regardless of material will be the brick joints.
Either way, I'd be careful.
If the question is whether or not lego bricks generate microplastics, the answer is no, not really. Microplastics are mostly a problem when they wind up in the water supply, either from plastic fibers in clothes that are being washed, or plastic microbeads in shampoo that gets rinsed down the drain, or in plastic trash that has wound up in a river or ocean and is deteriorating into smaller particles.
What do you think about tyres as a source of "micro-granulate" that ends up in animals grazing?
Compare this with dolls, trucks, etc that break after 6 months and do end up in the trash. Phones, laptops, TVs these create so much more waste than bricks that are still perfectly usable 40 years later - I know, I have a lot.
LOL? No, most people don't know that? Shall we head to the streets and make a video where we interview random people about what plastic is used in Lego bricks?
If we do that in the hallways of a chemistry building at a major university campus, we might hit above 50%, particularly if we go at a time when it's not crawling with undergrads.
Rather than meaning something like "so close you couldn't miss" (which is how it's usually used) it technically means the much longer distance at which you can ignore gravitational drop and just hold the sights on the target you are aiming at. As in: "Therefore point blank range for a deer size target is about 275 metres (300-310 yards)" (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point-blank_range).
For reference, a 300 yard shot at a deer is really far, rarely should be taken, and is rarely successful. Which is to say that by analogy, answering a question "point blank" arguably should mean something closer to "can access the information in a few minutes with an internet connection"!