When you become a parent, you have plans. You intend to run your household like a well-oiled machine, keeping things organized and efficient. Especially when it comes to kids’ toys.
So you buy bins. You stow kid toys, books, crayons, etc. And despite your best efforts, people keep giving your kids more stuff. But to try, in vain, to keep things in order. You buy more bins, keep organizing, and then…
the Legos arrive. And it’s GAME OVER.
Oh sure, it starts out innocent, with the single bag of big, knobby toddler Lego blocks. But as kids get older, the Lego sets get smaller, and more intricate, with thousands of tiny pieces.
And all it takes is stepping on one- one single Lego brick- with your bare feet to fully grasp how painful childbirth really is. Thanks, kids!
But if you’re bemoaning the mass volume of Legos that are currently cluttering your home and endangering your feet, your solution has arrived!
Lego is now asking you to ship back your unused Lego bricks to be donated to kids in need, and is willing to pay for the shipping, too!
Last week, the Lego group introduced their new pilot program, known as Lego Replay.
The goal of the program is to get extra, unused Lego sets and pieces into the hands of less fortunate children who would love them.
To that end, Lego has created a specific page on its website to provide interested potential donors with all of the information needed to share their extra Legos.
The page features a heartwarming musical video featuring several families pouring their Legos into donation boxes (although no charming video is needed on my end to convince me to send some of these bricks packing).
The website makes is really easy to donate, too- all that is required is an empty box and some Legos. You can print shipping labels directly from Lego’s page, and even arrange for a delivery service (FedEx, UPS, etc.) to pick your package up from your home if necessary.
How cool is that??
This concept has been in the making for three years before coming to fruition, and is the brainchild of Lego, Give Back Box, Boys & Girls Club of Boston, and Teach For America.
According to Tim Brooks, the Lego Group’s Environmental Responsibility Vice President, Lego wanted to figure out what could be done with Legos that families had taken out of circulation:
others have asked us for a safe way to dispose of or to donate their bricks.
With Replay, they have an easy option that’s both sustainable and socially impactful.
Instead of dumping tons of plastic Lego bricks into the garbage or letting them sit indefinitely in a closet, Brooks’ team collaborated with Give Back Box, a charitable foundation that recycles nearly 11 million tons of footwear, clothing, & toys.
Once a box of donated Legos arrives at a Give Back Box facility, each individual brick is carefully examined, sanitized, and sorted into sets. The sets are then to be distributed to various nonprofits across the country.
The Lego Replay program is now operational, but the key to its success: mass donations of Legos.
The program is aiming to ship its first donation sets to nonprofits by the end of this month. It will be reassessed in the spring of 2020; if all goes well, Lego intends to expand the program.
So here’s your chance, parents! Instead of secretly chucking random Lego bricks when (you think) your kid isn’t watching, here’s an opportunity to reduce your Lego volume while doing something genuinely good for other kids.
Instead of vacuuming up those spare pieces, you (ok, me. It’s me vacuuming them up.), think of the joy another child could feel from playing with those very bricks your kid won’t miss.
Monica Wiela, the founder of the Give Back Box charity, best summed up why Lego Replay is such an amazing concept. When she shared her motivation for opting to collaborate with the Lego Group in this philanthropic program, she said:
What’s better than giving a child the gift of play?
Despite your bruised, aching feet, Legos have likely provided your child with hours of fun. Now we have the opportunity to provide that fun for someone else’s child.
Shipping is easy, and free. But the joy a child in need would feel is priceless.