Wednesday Walk: Re-Legoing
Another racist sports incident, reusing Legos rather than recycling, making jeans dark again
Welcome to Willoughby Hills!
If you enjoy what you’re reading, please consider a free subscribtion to receive emails every Wednesday and Sunday plus podcast episodes every two weeks. There are also paid options, which unlock even more features.
As is typical every Wednesday, I’m bring you a smattering of topics that I hope will make you a bit more curious about the world around you and give you something to think about later. I call these Wednesday Walks, as it’s the type of conversation we might have walking down a path in the woods. Shall we take a stroll?
More Racism in Sports
On Sunday, I wrote about my high school in Northeast Ohio and its problematic embrace of the Confederate flag and other Confederate symbolism for decades. It’s been more than 20 years since I graduated high school. A part of me likes to imagine that the problems that I described on Sunday were of the past, even though there are countless schools across the country that have offensive team names or mascots.
After reading my piece, reader Harry brought to my attention that the issue of racism in high school sports is still with us. He shared an article about a high school not far from Willoughby South High where an incident occurred just last month.
Brooklyn High School football players used the term “Nazi” on the field to describe one of their plays. This is problematic on its own, but it’s made worse by the fact that the team Brooklyn was facing came from Beachwood, Ohio, a city whose population is nearly 90% Jewish. And this game took place on the Friday before Yom Kippur, no less.
The Brooklyn football coach, Tim McFarland, resigned after meeting with school officials the following Monday. McFarland is now represented by an attorney who shared a handout from the Ohio High School Football Coaches Association from the 1990s which lists a few questionable names for a blitz play.
While it can be easy to think little things like this are being blown out of proportion, Jason Wuliger, government relations committee chair of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, is quoted in the article reminding us all why it’s important to be impeccable with our language:
“‘I have family in my background who were murdered by the Nazis,’ he said. ‘I have family who survived the Nazi camps. If you talk to most Jews in Northeast Ohio they likely have a similar background. This is present. This is hurtful.’
‘It is easy for people to either forget or just not realize what awful things happened not that long ago. And so we try to educate and put people in a position to have the facts. Because I believe that most people would not want to use this kind of hateful language, if they were aware of the depth of evil perpetrated by the people who had that name,’ he said.”
I certainly don’t mean to single out Ohio here as I think these problems persist in all parts of the country, but it is an interesting addendum to my Sunday story and a reminder that we still have a long way to go in the fight for equality, visibility, and understanding.
Recycle vs Reuse
I’ve been reading the work of Lloyd Alter for a long time and was thrilled when I found him here on Substack. He published a piece last week about Lego backing off of their pledge to use recycled plastic in the manufacturing of their brick toys.
Lego had originally hoped to use recycled plastic bottles to make bricks out of PET, but they found it wasn’t as durable as the ABS plastic in their original formulation. To make strong toys from recycled plastic ended up taking more ingredients and energy, negating any carbon savings from using recycled plastic.
Alter goes on to explain that the best use of recycled plastic bottles is more plastic bottles, because it becomes a closed loop. Using plastic bottles for Lego toys requires more plastic bottles, creating more demand for virgin bottles.
The interesting tidbit for me though was that Lego was abandoning recycling for something much simpler: reuse. Because the current plastic blocks are so durable, they can be reused again and again.
Currently, Lego collects used bricks in their stores, washes them, and donates them to charity. But they are looking at ways to monetize this program, repackaging used Lego blocks for reuse.
There’s a lot that I like about this idea, and it’s familiar to some of the ideas that Sandra Goldmark mentioned when she was a guest on my podcast. Having Lego, and it’s nearly 100 retail stores in the U.S., involved in the collection and redistribution of its product formalizes what can otherwise be a haphazard process.
Parents with Lego sets that their kids have outgrown now know exactly where to take them- directly to Lego! And customers looking for a bargain, variety, or who are eco-conscious know they can go directly to Lego to buy used bricks. No more hoping to get lucky at a thrift store or flea market.
One other piece of this news that makes me very happy is that perhaps these “grab bag” used sets could get Lego back to how I remember it as a child. I love going in to browse our local Lego store and look at the elaborate sets: Hogwart’s castles, Millennium Falcons, etc, but I’ve never bought one.
My memory of Lego is a random bin of random blocks that could all be fit together to build interesting and unique things from my imagination. One day it might be a house, the next a barn, and the next a skyscraper. When my kids were younger, I had a hard time finding random Lego sets, but used Lego sets would have to be, by their very nature, randomized.
My son received a small Lego set one year as a gift, and it was a bit maddening following the instructions to put even a simple toy together. It was a bit like painting by numbers, when I wanted to simply paint.
Recycling may not have worked out, but it seems that closed loop reuse may have even more benefits than could have been initially anticipated.
#NoNewClothes- Week 51
I am closing in on the end of my challenge to go an entire year without purchasing new clothes, which was originally inspired by a newsletter I wrote about Amory Sivertson. I’ve only broken the challenge by buying one new shirt, plus two other vintage pieces (a Sears sweater and a used Patagonia flannel).
Lately, I’ve been considering how to keep pieces in my closet for longer, and my attention has turned to my jeans.
I am somebody who prefers dark wash jeans. I tried a tip from Patric Richardson a while ago where I soaked my jeans in salt water to help retain the dye, but more than a year later, my jeans are starting to fade again.
At this point a few years ago, I normally would have sighed and purchased a few new pairs of slightly darker jeans, but these days I’m trying to be more mindful of my consumption.
I came across a YouTube video that shows that jeans can be brought back to life by using fabric dye. But not just any dye- black dye!
According to the video, the jeans already contain blue dye, and the black helps darken them to how they looked originally.
I bought some dye this week but am a little nervous to try this out. Have you ever tried dying your jeans? How did it go? Let me know in the comments if this is the best idea I’ve ever had or if I’m in for a big mess and lackluster results.
I publish new issues every Wednesday and Sunday. Sign up to always receive the latest issue and support my work:
Other Wednesday Walks
If you’ve missed past issues of this newsletter, they are available to read here.
Use vinegar in the rinse cycle of every wash instead of fabric softener and your jeans will not fade as quickly.