this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2024
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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.