Sustainable product design required holistic thinking

Last month, Lego launched a take-back service in the UK. The pilot programme, dubbed Replay, will test new uses for returned Lego bricks, which will be recycled into items such as storage boxes for school toys. Given the company's U-turn on its commitment to switching to non-oil-based materials in November last year, the initiative is particularly timely. But repurposing donated bricks into alternative objects, albeit commendable, still falls short of addressing the core issue underlying Lego's sustainability challenges. Like with its unfruitful promise to make bricks from old plastic bottles, the toy manufacturer is once again looking to make improvements in the wrong places

‍