Lego billionaires to invest ‘heavily’ in plastic recycling tech

Plastic Recycling  |  2026-09-11 00:27:31   |   By

Every year, around 35 kilograms (77 pounds) of plastic-packaging waste is generated per person, most of which is made from imported fossil fuels, according to EU estimates.

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The fund managing the wealth of the Danish billionaires behind Lego A/S intends to significantly ramp up investments in plastics technologies, as Europe prepares to enforce much stricter recycling rules.

The climate unit of Kirkbi A/S plans to double the size of its $1.6 billion portfolio over the coming five years. Plastics recycling will represent “an area where we plan to invest heavily,” Anupam Bhargava, chief executive officer of Kirkbi Climate, said in an interview.

The European Union has set a 2030 deadline for all packaging to be recyclable. The requirement - known as the EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) - is part of a larger set of measures designed to cut carbon emissions and waste in the EU.

The new rules “will create added confidence for investors like us that the market will eventually mature,” Bhargava said. “We can dive in knowing that the market economics don’t work today, but if there’s no chance for the market economics to ever work, then that’s very difficult.”

Every year, around 35 kilograms (77 pounds) of plastic-packaging waste is generated per person, most of which is made from imported fossil fuels, according to EU estimates. Yet recycling as a business area has long been held back, due to a combination of low investment and stubbornly competitive petrochemical prices that have made virgin plastic cheaper than recycling.

Today, “there’s no solution where you can invest in a technology company and that will produce amazing results,” Bhargava said. That’s because companies involved in recycling work “in a value chain that is currently highly fragmented and not very efficient.”

With the packaging regulation deadlines looming, however, “the industry needs to get ready now,” Bhargava said.

Kirkbi is the holding company of the Lego group whose colorful plastic building blocks are sold around the world. The company managed 189 billion kroner ($29 billion) in assets as of year-end.

Kirkbi Climate, which invests in the energy transition and land use in addition to plastics recycling, has 10 billion kroner under management. Future investments will be roughly split between energy and recycling, with a focus on a handful of EU countries and plastics, Bhargava said.

After more than a decade of climate investing, the fund is now taking a more active approach, aiming for positions in companies large enough to have “real influence” on boards, he said. That follows a decision last year to carve out climate investments into a separate unit.

“The idea for the family was that if we’re going to help solve climate at scale, then we need to be a business builder,” Bhargava said. “And that means investing in a very different way.”

Courtesy: www.spokesman.com