De-Clutter And Give Back With Lego Replay - Forbes Vetted

For many parents, the coming onslaught of holiday gifts can be as stress-provoking as it is festive and fun, making this an ideal time of year to consider cleaning out unused toys. Now in its fifth year, the Lego Replay program provides one feel-good way to recycle Lego bricks while also helping kids with fewer resources get access to these beloved and skill-building toys.

The Lego Replay program helps kids in underserved communities get access to free Lego bricks.

According to Skip Kodak, regional president for the Americas Commercial Division of the Lego Group, the program helps address both environmental sustainability and social responsibility—two thing the company views as interlinked. He says the company has created a system “to clean, sort and refresh those bricks to make them ready for other hands to play with.” Donating bricks to Replay is ideal for people looking to downsize their Lego collection, caregivers whose kids have graduated from Duplo to more advanced Lego bricks and parents of adult kids who don’t have space for that giant tub of mixed bricks.

The way the program works is pretty simple. Anyone who wants to participate should disassemble and box up any unwanted Lego bricks, Minifigures, Lego baseplates, Duplo bricks, Technic bricks or minidolls. You can visit the Replay donate page on Lego’s website to get a free UPS shipping label. Lego doesn’t accept any electronic components, other Lego merchandise, building instructions, packaging or non-Lego products at this time.

Once Lego receives the bricks, the donations are cleaned and organized into collections that have a variety of components, so kids can make their own creations and build in an open-ended way. Kodak says they work to ensure that these sets have different shapes and colors, so “there's a relevant play experience in there.” These Replay boxes are then distributed through a network of non-profits that includes First Book and Boys & Girls Clubs to kids and educators.

Lego replay boxes being distributed to educators in Richmond, Virginia.

“In our first five years we think we've had a measurable impact,” says Kodak, noting that the program has kept nearly 270 million Lego bricks in play in the U.S. “About 390,000 U.S. children have had access to playing with Lego Replay bricks in classrooms and communities.” The program has also expanded to Canada and most recently, the United Kingdom.

There are many things to like about Lego Replay from a climate and environment standpoint. It not only keeps Lego bricks out of landfill. It actually extends the toy’s current life for its intended use—rather than using energy and other resources to re-make the materials into something else that might be a lower quality (a potential issue for many types of plastic recycling). Although Lego says it doesn’t track exactly how much water or carbon the program saves, I think this aspect of Lego Replay makes for a more responsible take-back program than those that just provide conventional recycling. (The company separately piloted a limited “Brick Take Back” at a few Lego store locations that accepted fewer types of components. According to a brand representative this pilot is coming to its end, so currently Lego Replay is the best way to recycle your bricks with the company.)

The opportunities Lego Replay provides kids are equally important. “The Lego brand is really about trying to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow,” says Kodak. The Replay program helps expand who has access to that vision, “especially where they can be used by children who might live in underserved or marginalized communities and give them access to play that they might not ordinarily have.”