Friday 20 March 2020

LEGO, A Toy For Today,

but it may be a problem for tomorrow,


as it has been found that Lego bricks take between 100 and 1,300 years to fully disintegrate at sea, depending on variations in the plastic's composition and the marine weathering it experiences, worse still knowing this they are still being made! in 1997, nearly 5 million bits of Lego on a container ship fell overboard, estimates also predict that over 2 million blocks have been flushed down the toilet by children, "Lego is one of the most popular children's toys in history and part of its appeal has always been its durability," says Andrew Turner from the University of Plymouth, who studies the chemical properties of marine litter, "It is specifically designed to be played with and handled, so it may not be especially surprising that despite potentially being in the sea for decades it isn't significantly worn down. However, the full extent of its durability was even a surprise to us." while weathered blocks from beaches in Cornwall showed various degrees of weakening, yellowing, blunting, fracturing and fouling, researchers were surprised to find the toys largely intact, image Credit: Turner et al., Environmental Pollution, 2020/ Science Alert, I wonder when will LEGO start to produce a more environmentally friendly product?


No comments: