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TIL LEGO buys back bricks with giftcards
(legobricktakeback.com)
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this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2024
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What do they do with the bricks they take back? The website doesn’t seem to say. Not taking duplo or built sets makes it sound like they aren’t being recycled into something new. Are they being cleaned, sorted, and resold?
They go into a massive Lego box then whenever someone in the office needs a brick they trawl through the box with both hands to find the exact piece they need.
As is tradition.
Lego has been trying to figure out how to make recycable bricks so these aren't recycled. They are probably being reused by their master builders for Lego stores and Legoland Parks.
Also in 2019, Lego aquired Bricklink, a site for Lego enthusiasts to buy and sell new and used Legos.
From the site, it seems like they don't know yet.
It's hilarious how well this parallels the economy. Lego wants to reduce inflation by getting people to spend their bricks putting them back into circulation rather than sitting in a savings account.
Are there any other parallels which can be drawn here? Can my Lego bricks earn interest?
Just put your sets for rent
That’s my guess. I get the impression that their “switch to eco friendly plastic” initiative isn’t going well, this might be an attempt to stretch the timeline (by using resold bricks they can manufacture fewer new ones). But totally an uninformed guess.
Pretty sure they aren't recycled into new Lego pieces. IIRC Lego is produced using entirely or nearly entirely virgin material, as recycled plastic isn't as high quality, and that's something Lego is super anal about.
But for the same reason, Lego pieces last for ages. All that is required to continue using any intact pieces, is to wash them.
I think there was some kind of donation program that provides Lego to orphanages, daycares and hospitals. Not as sets, but more like a kilo of random pieces, which of course still means an imaginative kid can build all kinds of things.
And their manufacturing tolerances are insane.
Having everything made for 75 years or whatever fit together snugly and reliably is harder than a lot of people think.
Oh yes. It is legitimate hardcore production engineering.
If you look into it, there's a long history of Lego going the extra mile in every way. And to protect their methods, they do stuff like burying retired manufacturing dies in the foundations of their new facilities to ensure they don't fall into the hands of competitors for reverse engineering.
I think the tolerance on LEGO was about the feature size of a Pentium II or Pentium III last I checked, which is ludicrous considering it's moulded plastic.
They get thrown on the carpet where you must walk barefoot.