Why Your Lego Collection Is Not Vegan (Caavakushi Brings You The Uncomfortable Truth)
Hands up if you thought that colourful little plastic brick, the undisputed king of childhood nostalgia and adult-onset hobbyist, was safely vegan? You’re certainly not alone! It seems like a no-brainer, right? It’s just plastic! But friends, we’re vegans, and we know that if something isn’t explicitly certified, there’s likely a microscopic animal derivative lurking somewhere. And when it comes to answering that bunning question Why is your Lego collection not vegan? Unfortunately the revelation is sadly consistent with the systemic lack of transparency in global manufacturing.
The Caavakushi team finds the whole ordeal to be utterly ridiculous. In this day and age, why is a company that literally spends billions on sustainability still unable to give us a definitive answer? It’s irritating, and frankly, it feels like negligence.
The ABS Problem (Stearic Acid Sneaks In)
The primary issue lies in the material itself. Approximately 80% of all Lego bricks are made from Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene, or ABS plastic. While the core plastic polymer structure is synthetic and petroleum-derived (which is its own environmental headache, requiring about 2kg of petroleum to make 1kg of plastic), the problem lies with the additives required to make that plastic mouldable, durable, and colourful.
When the Caavakushi team dug into official correspondence from Lego, the answer was vague but damning: they confirmed that animal-derived products are in some cases part of the formula, and in other cases, they “do not know” if certain substances have an animal-based origin.
What are these sneaky culprits? The primary suspect is stearic acid. This saturated fatty acid is a white, waxy substance commonly used in plastic manufacturing as a slip agent or mold release agent. It stops the hot plastic from sticking to the machinery and keeps the finished bricks from clinging together in the package.
Here’s The Breakdown
Stearic acid (C18H36O2) is derived from both vegetable fats (like palm oil, which brings up its own ethical issues) and animal fats (tallow). Since animal tallow is often the cheaper, readily available by-product of the slaughter industry, manufacturers frequently opt for it. Because Lego sources their materials globally and uses a complex supply chain, they cannot guarantee every batch of ABS plastic or the dye colourants used are 100% free of animal-derived stearic acid.
The Colour Conundrum & The Sticker Scrutiny
If the plastic itself isn’t enough to induce a sigh of exasperation, let’s look at the other components:
Colourants: While the infamous carmine (derived from cochineal insects) is an expensive pigment and less likely to be the widespread issue, other dyes and stabilizers used to maintain color quality in the plastic may use animal derivatives in their base.
Adhesives/Inks
Many Lego collection sets include stickers or printed pieces. Traditional glues and inks sometimes use gelatin or other animal-derived binders to set the pigment or ensure adhesion. Again, due to the volume and lack of specific vegan certification, these remain a murky area where full disclosure is simply unavailable.
It’s infuriating to think that a company with over 150 people reportedly working on sustainability can’t deploy a simple supply chain audit to ensure these basic additives are plant-derived across the board. The Caavakushi team agree that we are owed greater transparency.
A Step In The Right Direction But Not Far Enough
We must give credit where it’s due: Lego has made commitments to sustainability. They have invested heavily in a material science team and aim to source over 50% of their raw materials from sustainable sources (using the mass-balance method) by 2026. Furthermore, they already produce a small percentage of their pieces (around 200 botanical elements) from sustainably sourced sugarcane-based polyethylene (Bio-PE)—a truly vegan material.
However, the continued reliance on uncertified ABS plastic for the overwhelming majority of their production is what keeps the company firmly rooted in the “non-vegan” category. Until they can guarantee that those slip agents and colour stabilizers are entirely plant-based, the responsible choice for conscious vegans must be to seek out brands that offer explicit, certified cruelty-free assurances. So ditch that Lego collection! The planet (and the animals) deserves a full, clean transition—not just a symbolic leaf or flower made of sugarcane!
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