After a week in which the news has been dominated by two classroom bullies picking on the clever kid because he doesn’t have the latest sneakers, we’re in need of some good news. And, thanks to LEGO’s ongoing journey towards more sustainable products, we have some!

LEGO bricks, made from acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, are a ‘virgin’ plastic; non-biodegradable, and crude oil based. Which means they last for ages, but are created by drilling through the earth’s crust and sucking out the carbon-intensive liquid dinosaurs within.

Experimentations with recycled plastics have so far not yielded environmental improvements (and massive respect to LEGO for saying so), but this week the world’s largest tyre manufacturer (yes, that’s LEGO!) announced a breakthrough in their tyre technology,

“Indistinguishable from the existing tyres fans know and love”, LEGO have developed a new compound made from 30% recycled materials, including old fishing nets (a scourge of our oceans), rope, and used engine oil.

Due for roll-out (hah!) in 2025, 120 different LEGO sets are due to adopt the new tyres, which means if you buy a six-wheeled set such as the LEGO Technic 42203 Tipping Dump Truck, the equivalent of two of its tyres are completely recycled. And better yet, a little less fishing net will be indiscriminately killing marine life.

You can read The LEGO Company’s full press release about their new recycled material tyres at the LEGO Newsroom, and today we like LEGO even more than we did before.