The beach and the ocean have long been sources of treasure hunting—lost jewelry in the sand, ancient coins found in shipwrecks (every pirate’s dream!), private messages in bottles washed ashore—the mystery of it all is nothing short of exciting. You get to be a part of history, or to collect a little piece of it.

And for some, that treasure has come in the form of LEGO® pieces.

In February 1997, a cargo ship called the Tokio Express was traveling from Denmark to North America, when an unusual 28-foot wave off the coast of Cornwall, UK, struck the ship, forcing the contents of 62 containers to plunge into the ocean. In one of those containers were almost 4.8 million pieces of LEGO—ironically, many of them sea themed, such as octopuses, sharks, sea grass, spear guns, life rafts, scuba tanks, cutlasses, flippers and dragons. Other types included miniscule flowers, guns, witches’ hats, brooms and black bats. The Great Lego Spill began.

     

Months after the spill, some pieces began appearing on the shores of Cornwall and surrounding beaches. Although beachcombers have uncovered thousands of pieces since the spill, most of the pieces are still lost at sea. They’re likely settled on the ocean floor, although no one knows for sure. LEGOs have made their way to shores in parts of England, Ireland, Belgium, France and the Netherlands, but with the help of ocean currents, could have traveled much further in the last 27 years. Some of the 4,756,940 colorful pieces have even become sought-after treasures, such as the octopi and dragons—and are a favorite find of locals in Cornwall.

In 2013, one such beachcomber, Tracey Williams, was so enthralled by her findings at the beach (LEGO pieces still washing ashore after all this time), that she was inspired to create a Facebook group called “LEGO Lost at Sea”. The group details findings from the spill—where, when and which pieces have been discovered. Since then, the LEGO Lost at Sea project has spread to other social media networks, Instagram and X (formerly known as Twitter), and news of it has traveled across the world.

In 2014, a BBC story about the lost LEGO piqued people’s interest. Many came forward with their own findings, while others traveled far—from the US, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium—to engage in the hunt for these famous pieces. After that came a documentary, The Secret World of LEGO, as well as LEGO hunting trips, a podcast, an exhibition called Container at the Australian National Maritime Museum, and most recently an exhibition at the Royal Cornwall Museum called Adrift: Lost at Sea and a nomination for the 2023 Rescue Project of the Year in the Current Archaeology Awards.

But to Tracey Williams, although the project and Facebook group have become a “joyous affair” and brought people together, it also “highlights the issue of marine debris” as she said to NPR in 2014. The Lego pieces are, in fact, plastic and it’s often forgotten that the cargo ship also dumped many other items, such as wheelbarrow wheels, beer, hose parts and garden tools, furniture, French perfume, car parts and cigarette lighters, all of which are highly toxic to marine life.

Companies that ship containers whose contents fall overboard are usually not directly responsible for the ocean pollution that happens from spills, yet it’s difficult not to hold someone responsible. Plastic that ends up in our oceans, whether through cargo ship spills, waste dumping or improper disposal by individuals, will stay in the ocean for thousands of years, slowly degrading into smaller microplastic fragments, but never fully disappearing. In the case of the LEGO pieces, an Environmental Pollution article published in July 2020, concluded that the classic LEGO bricks made from acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plastic undergo “fouling, cracking, pigment leaching and mass loss” and will remain in the environment for 100–1300 years. As a result, Williams thinks that her grandchildren and perhaps later generations will continue to find these LEGOs lost at sea.

"Some of the plastic we pick up from beaches is decades old — in some cases 60-70 years old — toothbrushes, cereal packet toys, the remains of old footballs, plastic shoes from the '60s”, said Williams to People Magazine in June 2024. “It shows how long plastic lasts in the coastal environment, some buried in sand, some lying on the seabed. I’m intrigued and disturbed by the changing nature of beachcombing—how once we searched for shells and sea glass and how we now pick up plastic."

And although some LEGO pieces have broken down and look slightly different from their original form, Williams says that many people are surprised by what "good condition" the pieces are in when they're found.

Shortly after the spill, Oceanographer Dr. Curtis Ebbesmeyer, predicted that “by 2020, currents would have distributed the LEGO elements throughout much of the northern hemisphere”. To this day, no LEGO pieces from the 1997 spill have been reported in North America, but this projected movement showcases how quickly and broadly plastic and other debris can move within the world’s oceans. And the worst part is how gravely this plastic can affect marine life—choking and suffocating birds and fish, entangling seals, turtles and dolphins and becoming “food” for everything from small fish to large sea mammals. In the end, humans who eat fish that have ingested plastic items also have microplastic particles in their bodies. The end results are equally devastating.

Lego Corporate Social Responsibility: Action Steps

Which brings us to some questions. Can events such as the famous LEGO spill be avoided? What is LEGO doing to minimize the effects of such accidents, and of general plastic pollution?

In her book, Adrift: The Curious Tale of the Lego Lost at Sea, Williams details a conversation she had in 2021 with Tim Brooks, the Vice President for Environmental Responsibility at LEGO.

“We don’t want any LEGO bricks to be in the sea—ever,” said Brooks. “We’re absolutely passionate about keeping LEGO bricks out of nature.”

He goes on to say that the company works with reputable shipping companies, but once a container is loaded onto a ship and it sails, the company doesn’t have much control over what happens next. “We rely on them to make sure they don’t harm the environment.” The issue is that sometimes containers on ships are not stacked properly or safely (they could be too high, etc.), and unpredictable natural weather events could occur, such as the rogue wave that hit the Tokio Express in 1997.

As for LEGO, the company has invested in sustainable materials and encourages circular play with their blocks—to be passed down from generation to generation. It has also promised to improve energy efficiency, expand on-site renewable energy production and secure a supply of renewable energy for their factories, offices and stores, according to its website.

Here are some of the sustainability efforts initiated by LEGO:

• LEGO has aimed to reduce their absolute greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 37% by 2032, compared to 2019.

• Some LEGO bricks and elements are already made with recycled and renewable materials, such as sugarcane, recycled kitchen worktops, or fishing nets.

• The company started LEGO Replay, a take-back program that gives LEGO fans in the UK, US and Canada a chance to donate their old bricks to others in need. 

• Currently, 93% of LEGO packaging by weight is made from paper, cardboard and other paper-based materials. They are working hard to replace single-use plastic with paper-based bags for all LEGO sets. The company tested around 70 different paper types, 15 prototypes, and included hundreds of kids and parents in the fun.

• LEGO is building two factories, one in the US and one in Vietnam, to manufacture their products closer to the countries where the demand is high. Both factories will feature solar facilities, which will have the capacity to match their energy needs.

• In 2024, it’s rare for LEGO to send shipments by sea (avoiding spills into the ocean)—most products are distributed by air—although as Tim Brooks says, sea shipping is “still the least polluting way to ship goods to the corners of the globe.”

Tracey Williams hopes that the bittersweet effects of the 1997 Tokio Express spill, both an exhilarating beachcomber experience and a dire reality check of the ever-increasing plastic pollution problem, will be eye-opening for current and future generations.

“Sometimes, when I stare out to sea, I find it hard to believe there is so much plastic out there,” said Williams to Writers Rebel in 2023. “When I stand on the clifftops in north Cornwall and gaze into the distance, it all looks so clean, so perfect. Sparkling blue seas, white capped waves, sea pinks carpeting the cliffs. Pristine, beautiful. And then you look at a beach below and it’s covered in plastic – it’s such a contrast.”  

In the joy of finding these lost LEGO treasures washed ashore, we hope the serious implications of plastic pollution and its harm to our oceans will not be lost at sea.

For more information on the Tokio Express cargo ship incident, the LEGO Lost at Sea project and William’s personal journey, pick up and read her book, Adrift: The Curious Tale of the Lego Lost at Sea.