The Danish company that manufactures Lego has said it is ‘more committed than ever’ to making its products and business more sustainable. This follows setbacks developing more sustainable plastics to replace its Lego pieces that are still almost entirely made from oil-based virgin polymers.

In a press release published on 27 September, the toymaker said it would triple its spending on sustainability initiatives to $1.4 billion (£1.1 billion) by 2025 and had set itself the target of reducing carbon emissions by 37% by 2032 with the aim of being net zero by 2050.

Some materials Lego had developed to replace virgin plastics, such as recycled PET, had shown promise initially, but were later found to have had little impact on reducing carbon emissions. ‘We have learned a lot and will apply those learnings as we continue to develop new materials and explore other ways to make our bricks more sustainable’, the company said.

It also said it was committed to investing in sustainable materials and had tested more than 300 different materials, including bio-PE (sustainably sourced polyethylene), which it already uses to make botanical features, such as trees, bushes and leaves