Lego - the Largest Tyre Manufacturer in the World

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_tire#Production

by T-zex • 14 years ago

67 31 14 years ago

en.wikipedia.org

Navarr• 14 years ago

Just out of curiosity, in what countries is it "Tyre"? Can any HNer's fill me in?

zandorg• 14 years ago

Tyre is English.

Trezoid• 14 years ago

Any country that uses British spelling for things.

ubernostrum• 14 years ago

That really depends, because "British spelling" isn't an all-or-nothing thing -- many of the Commonwealth countries show broad variation in how much they adhere to the traditional UK spellings.

Thus, for example, Australia has a Labor party, not a Labour party (while neighbor New Zealand does have a Labour party), and typically sends people to jail instead of to gaol. Canada usually has tires instead of tyres, and Canadians realize things instead of realising them.

randlet• 14 years ago

Not sure about NZ & Oz but you would never see it written "tyre" in Canada and I bet most Canadian's would have no idea "tyre" was an alternative spelling for tire.

amirmc• 14 years ago

UK -- or at least it used to be (wouldn't be surprised if more people were using the american form now).

mparlane• 14 years ago

New Zealand, as we are a british colony.

DigitalSea2• 14 years ago

In Australia it's spelled "tire" as far as I know. I've never really seen the spelling "tyre" used here before, hence invalidating the claim that any country that relies on British spelling all use the same spellings for words.

hartror2• 14 years ago

Actually it is tyre in Australia.

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=tyre

chrisbroadfoot• 14 years ago

How long have you lived in Australia? I have never seen "tire" used here before.

tomflack• 14 years ago

Two questions (and I'm not trying to be snarky or aggressive here!)

1) Are you Australian? (sub question, were you born Australian?)

2) What state/territory do you live in?

Because every state and territory I've lived in, it's been tyre. I've never seen tire used except by non-native speakers.

StevenRayOrr2• 14 years ago

It's "tire" in Canada, but our Commonwealth status has stopped meaning anything at all. We owe more to our American cultural ties than to our historical monarchy and our tendency towards UK English.

Source: my entire life and, I suppose, http://canadiantire.ca

moylan• 14 years ago

it's tyre in ireland.

nhebb• 14 years ago

Note that this is ranked by units produced, and the Lego tires are for their toy kits. It's kind of silly to compare their production against Michelin, Bridgestone, et al.

StevenRayOrr2• 14 years ago

The real question is if Lego produces more blocks than a brickyard. Or people than a... maternity ward?

Nope, you're right. It is kind of silly although maybe Lego somehow uses it as a point of advertising pride.

femto• 14 years ago

An interesting list would be tyre manufacturers by total load bearing capacity produced. For example, if a manufacturer makes 500 tyres, each of which can support 1000kg, they get a score of 500 x 1000 = 500000. It'd be a cool list because it might throw up some unexpected results, due to tyres for odd applications.

blutonium• 14 years ago

The next three by units (Bridgestone, Michelin, Goodyear) all do commercial/industrial/aviation, I think Goodyear falls out a bit at the top end. 400 tonne trucks use Bridgestone/Michelin, the Airbus A380 uses Bridgestone, for what it's worth.

Would be cool to see it ranked like that though.

mikestall2• 14 years ago

Why is nobody talking about the horrifying impact that this is having on the environment? All of these plastic pieces will end up in the trash. In other words, in our environment. That doesn't even take into account the pollution from the manufacturing process. And we call this progress or innovation? Please stop making this garbage.

wmf• 14 years ago

As plastic trinkets go, at least Legos are much more durable and reusable than most toys.

henrikeh• 14 years ago

Among the reasons are that the Lego Group is doing their best to prevent such impact. 88%* of the waste plastic from the production. Their products, in sharp contrast to all other toys, can be assembled and disassembled ad infinitum, they can easily be combined with all other Lego products and the high-durability means that Lego is more often resold or donated rather than disposed.

On the other hand, do you have any examples of this "horrifying impact"?

* I remember being told it was a 99% figure, but the Group's website [0] lists 88%

[0] http://aboutus.lego.com/en/sustainability/the-topics-we-work...

SamReidHughes• 14 years ago

Trash goes into landfills, not the environment. It will be processed and recycled in the future, by robots.

Joeri• 14 years ago

And the lighter elements of landfills end up being washed out into the ocean. That's how we got the great plastic gyres in the pacific.

mikestall2• 14 years ago

Landfills are the environment. If you don't believe me I encourage you to live next to one.

bwldrbst• 14 years ago

If you know of someone throwing lego in the trash, please point me in their direction!

joezydeco• 14 years ago

LEGOs don't end up in a landfill. From my observations, they all end up under my couch cushions.

reneherse• 14 years ago

Now that is brilliant humor. So deadpan it survives in an encyclopedia entry :)

Lego - the Largest Tyre Manufacturer in the World

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