Have you encountered paper bags so far?

1 out of 6 sets this christmas, that's the first I've seen them.

I've only encountered paper bags for a whole two of my instructions (still getting them in cardboard carriers. Yet to see any paper bags used in any of my sets for the Lego parts.

Most of my sets last year had paper bags, this is in Australia.

I've bought like 5 sets in the last 3 months and they all had paper bags

I live in Spain, the only paper bags that I see is the change from foil packs to paper bags you find at the kiosks. But in a set I’ve never seen the paper ones yet.

I got paper bags twice, I think. I don't buy a lot of new sets, so I'm not a huge sample size.

My copy of 42175 used paper bags, as did 42200. Funnily enough, 42197 and 42199 did not.

I had paper bags and inside them were plastic ones.
And some papers about switching to paper bags.

Only had paper bags once, in 10333 Barad-dûr.
all my other sets have had plastic bags

I had a lot of paper bags in sets for Christmas and I agree it is hard to make sure everything comes out of each bag. I use scissors to cut them open as I have with plastic bags, ignoring the perforated line for the smaller ones, as I don't think it makes sense where it is, unless you throw them away and that seems a waste, if you plan to dismantle the set, as I have to at times.

As to whether it is an improvement or not, I'm not sure. I'll have to see when I have to dismantle one of the sets that has them, see if they rip or not, how secure the tape is.

Most of my sets have then now. I prefer them. They open cleaner and are easier to store.

Just once, and well before Christmas. The entire family's holiday haul was plastic bags. If it weren't for other North Americans saying "yeah, just once," I'd be questioning if I'd dreamed it.

I like them but not a big fan of the smaller bags inside the bigger bags that are much harder to tear open. And yes, pieces get stuck inside all the time.

All my recent sets have had paper bags (about 5 or 6 sets) and couple of "poly bags". I was skeptical beforehand but actually like them. My take:
+ they are packed better in the box. This means I've not had crumpled instructions
+ they open easier with rear off, especially for my daughter whole really struggled with plastic bags
+ the pieces seem to tip out better, so less chance of them getting stuck. With the white paper, it's easy enough to check inside so loss of transparency isn't an issue

One negative is that each bag, once opened, is 2 bits: the main bag and the tear off bit, so tidy up is a bit more fiddly. But that is a small point.

I have a few sets yet to open from the 2024 purchases but if I look at the Speed Champions launched last year that I built the split was 50/50 paper / plastic.

None.

My nephew on the other hand who just started getting into it has already encountered them, haha

@Zordboy said:
"Australian here.

I get some, but not many.

And it's interesting, right? The Chrysanthemum botanicals set that was released last year? It had paper bags. But today, I built the lucky bamboo (and it's a gorgeous set, but that's not the point) and despite the fact it's come out six months after the Chrysanthemum, the bags were all plastic.

I just can't make any sense of it. "

Interesting, I recently bought 10368, 10369 and 10343 - the two released in 2024 were paper except for a small internal plastic bag each, but the orchid was all paper. So from my POV there's a more 'sensible' progress towards paper.

My Blacktron Renegade had paper bags, which was my first encounter with them.

@Decat2 said:
"Most of my sets last year had paper bags, this is in Australia."

I’m also in Australia, I buy dozens of sets per year, and I’m yet to see a single paper bag!!

Could have something to do with the fact I have little time or space, and most of my new sealed sets purchased in the last few years are still sitting sealed in a cupboard!
:))

Paper bags, definitely now the majority of the sets I get (uk based), though I’ve noticed that more small pieces get stuck inside compared to the clear plastic ones. However, paper is the way to go, sustainability-wise, so well done Lego, keep going.

Also in Australia (Tasmania, if anyone is keeping track of states)
In my experience, it's roughly a 50/50 split between plastic and paper bags. Echoing what others have said, I've had a rather odd mix - some "older" sets have had paper bags and some newer ones have had plastic. Interestingly, my copy of 75385 contained both paper and plastic bags...

Asia & Oceanic Lego from Lego China.
Most of set still using plastic bag & box still old style, open from side instead of open like a gift box.

I just started 21353 and I opened the gwp 6544433 to encounter a resealable plastic bag. Almost like I brought it off eBay rather than from the website.

I don't think I like the foldable boxes either. It was a pig to get the white box out and the crease marks make the boxes look old or scratched.

Colorado. I've had a couple paper bags in the past year. I can't really remember what set or when.

The lost pieces issue isn't a big deal if you rip two sides of the bag, which I remember being fairly easy as the bond is far weaker than the plastic ones.

In a city or creator set (I am not sure which was it, probably 60423 or 31146) I found paperbags within the box, but one paperbag even contains a small plastic bag, which contained smaller parts.

Bought the Control+ Porsche late last year, only just opened it. Paper bags inside. UK here.

@daniellesa said:
"I just started 21353 and I opened the gwp 6544433 to encounter a resealable plastic bag. Almost like I brought it off eBay rather than from the website."

Same thing happened to me in the US!

My understanding is that the paper bags are NOT coated with plastic inside, but are coated with a hard wax. I would be incredibly surprised to hear that LEGO is using plastic-coated paper, since they have been very clear that their objective was to have sustainable, recyclable packaging, and they went through extensive testing to find the right materials.

My recent Christmas/New Year (France/UK) hauls of 60415 , 76995 , 43235 , and 77053 all had paper bags. Although I'm all for the reduction of plastic packaging when possible, i do miss seeing the jumbled up pieces through the plastic bag...gives me a sense of 'make something out of this' misson vibes??

Thanks to tedgarb for the explanation about the situation in North America!

US here. I answered the poll saying that I've encountered zero paper bags, but in truth I've had one: the base plate in Tudor Corner (which traditionally comes bare in the box, so what gives here?) Also, the instructions for that set were in a paper wrapper instead of the cardboard envelope, which is a wash in regard to recycling.

I've found couple of them in New South Wales, but almost exclusively the smaller ones atm. Largest one with the paper bags was 60423 .

encountered them only once (EU/Italy)

My local LEGO store still has the plastic cups for PaB!

In the UK, I've had paper bags in all my 2024 sets above £10.

The only paper bags I've encountered in the USA are for the dinosaurs in the Jurassic Park thirtieth anniversary wave.

The last maybe 10 sest have had paper bags*

*but some plastiv bags inside bigger paper ones

c'mon Lego its been like 5 years since you announced this - It should be consistent by now, globally

I encounter paper bags more often each month. The main problem is they are not 100% paper so I am not sure how to recycle them. I really like new CMF boxes but for paper bags I am on the fence. Going full paper without this weird inside would definitely push me to like them more but until then I am not sold.

Please define what "new set" mean: 2025 only? 2024-2025? Maybe 2020-2025?

In Canada, the only paper bags I have seen were used to protect the dinosaurs in Jurassic World sets. The rest of the parts in those sets come in plastic.

Australasia here - my entire Avengers tower was paper bags, as well as all but 1 of last years speed champion sets.

The only two sets from 2025 I've had thus far - 71487 and 76969 - both came with standard plastic bags.

To be fair, I've only got one set new over the past couple of years, so my sample size is tiny: but my 43243 Simba had all plastic bags still, not a paper one in sight.

That said, despite not remembering it until after I voted in the poll, I have *seen* the paper bags in person; a friend's kid got last year's 60414 fire station for his birthday some months back, I saw him building part of it and its pieces came out of paper bags. I'd wonder if that meant that maybe bigger sets had made the transition to paper, while smaller sets were still plastic; but judging from other comments here it seems to be nowhere near that clearly defined.

Only encountered them once. They're actually quite nice and practical, I was pleasantly surprised.

I am from poland and most of sets I had in previous years had them.
ALL of new Minecraft/ANimal crossing ones had them.

Northeast US here: Of all the set I have bought and opened the only time I have seen paper bags was the Brachiosaurus set and only the dino itself was paper bagged. It's pretty disappointing because at this point it feels like the announcement was made with full knowledge that they still had years of stock on hand in the poly materials but decided to pat themselves on the back as soon as they could.

I'm now at the stage of pretty much encountering paper bags all the time, mainly as I've caught up with buying older sets so only buy new stuff. I'm still surprised when there are plastic small bags inside large paper bags, though!

I found it took a while to 'learn' how best to open the small bags (that are usually inside bigger bags) without bricks flying all over the room. The strip tears off the big bags fine, but there's definitely a knack with the smaller ones, which I think I've finally mastered!

In Canada I have yet to see paper bags other than one set I received at Christmas where the instructions were in a paper envelope. Pieces still in plastic bags here. 5 years on I would say Supply Chain manager going to be fired soon! No pressure! (Just kidding) ??

Only once in europe, with the Santa's X-Mas Post set

The only paper bag I’ve seen was for the paper wings in 10363 Leonardo da Vinci's Flying Machine. Other than that, it’s all still plastic.

Maryland in the USA here. Even though I have several sets with paper bags, I voted "no", since these were all purchased in Denmark. When I was showing them to my other AFOL friend, he said he had never seen the paper bags before either.

@AlfredHitchcock said:
" @daniellesa said:
"I just started 21353 and I opened the gwp 6544433 to encounter a resealable plastic bag. Almost like I brought it off eBay rather than from the website."

Same thing happened to me in the US!"

Yellow box GWPs have been doing that for a while.

I think the only paper bag I've seen so far has been one of the dinosaurs in last year's jurassic sets

France here, kind of half and half. I mainly encountered paper bags in smaller sets so far, while the larger ones still had full plastic.

I still have not seen a single one, and I’ve purchased quite a few 2024 sets, including the car transporter and yellow LEGO truck.

Austrian here. I'd say the majority of City and Friends sets I've purchased in the last two years contained paper bags but the Harry Potter sets had their pieces still in plastic bags.

The first sets this year were plastic, but that has changed a lot.

What I sometimes encounter with Technic sets is a paper bag with a small plastic bag in it.
Most of the times it's a big paper bag with 1 or more smaller paper bags in it, but some times there is a small plastic and that seems strange.
Also the 'bigger parts' in a separate bag that you need throughout the set are still in plastic, except for the pneumatic tubes.

So there is still some room for improvement.

I live in the United States and I have never received a single paper bag in a set I’ve bought.

I'm in the US and I finally got my first paper bag in the Fortnite bus. It was only for the directions and sticker sheet, but that's a start

Got paper bags in the 2 latest sets we built : the R2-D2, and the mini orchids.
Didn't see any for a long while before that though.

USA, in New England. Never once outside of imported magazine gifts. That said, my friend that's a store employee said his 4002024 came in paper bags. I assume that employee gift sets aren't packaged locally but imported.

The only paper as of end 2024 was head and body of Jabba with the sail barge. I live in North America

Cooper’s gaming controller jet from this year’s Dreamzzz lineup was the first and only time I encountered paper bags.

Living in North America we haven’t seen one paper bag. I typically purchase Ideas and Icons sets and my son loves Minecraft and Super Mario.

Yep, in North America I've never seen them . . . nada . . . zilch . . .

Italy here; in the last 6 months all the big sets (i.e., the ones with the new folding boxes) that i’ve buyed from Lego website had paper bags within

I'm quite unimpressed too. I'm in Canada where we were the first to have to stop using straws and plastic bags for groceries and even a bunch of grocery items that used to come in plastic bottles are slowly going back to glass but after 2 or 3 years of Lego saying that they are switching from plastic bags to paper I still haven't seen it. I have an online store on Bricklink and I'm a huge Lego geek so I buy A LOT of Lego from Walmart, Mastermind Toys, London Drugs, Canadian Tire, and yes even Lego.com. But nope, no paper yet just plastic. Even with my January 2025 Lego haul I thought I'd start seeing paper but still hasn't happened.

Currently building Tudor Corner and that has paper bags. Really like them. Easy to open, better for the environment.

I live in the US and haven't seen a single paper bag ever.

The only paper bag I ever had was for the sails in 10320.

@gearwheel said:
"Lego themselves admit they are plastic-lined, see https://www.lego.com/en-us/sustainability/recycle "

Thanks for the further info. I guess the info that I had seen earlier was either mistaken, or was about an earlier (testing) version of paper bag.

All that said, it would be nice to see more clarification from LEGO about the paper. I do know that in some regions small amounts of plastic are permitted in paper recycling (such as window envelopes). Also, maybe it's possible that they are using plant-based biodegradable plastic.

AFOL from Texas and I've never encountered a paper bag in a LEGO set.

In California...never once have I seen a paper bag in a LEGO set.

@foxprimus101 said:
"I'm quite unimpressed too. I'm in Canada where we were the first to have to stop using straws and plastic bags for groceries and even a bunch of grocery items that used to come in plastic bottles are slowly going back to glass but after 2 or 3 years of Lego saying that they are switching from plastic bags to paper I still haven't seen it. I have an online store on Bricklink and I'm a huge Lego geek so I buy A LOT of Lego from Walmart, Mastermind Toys, London Drugs, Canadian Tire, and yes even Lego.com. But nope, no paper yet just plastic. Even with my January 2025 Lego haul I thought I'd start seeing paper but still hasn't happened. "

Canadian Tire, such an underrated LEGO retailer! I wish we had London drugs in Québec.

Like many other people as I can see, I have only ever had one paper bag ever.

Based in Switzerland I would say 80% of the sets I built recently have paper bags. Granted, I mostly bux and build the larger Ideas and Icons sets, and quite a few Star Wars sets.

Currently building for example the Nightmare Before Xmas, which came in the new box style and had paper bags.

And, of course here on Brickset the people that don't receive paper bags complain, and quite a few who do complain that they hate them. Glad to see that negativity is still very prevalent here.

LEGO themselves have said that the paper bags are delayed in N-A, probably because they are building that new factory in Virginia. Apparently the factory in Mexico, which delivers most sets for N.A, has not been coverted yet to use paper bags.

I’m in Australia and had 1 paper bag in 2-3 sets last year but all plastic for the vast majority of purchases

Mostly, I get paper bags now (UK), and I love them. Although occasionally they have the weirdness of randomly having a couple of small plastic bags inside the bigger paper ones. >.<

Finished building the JAWS set earlier. All of the outer bags were paper, but some of the inner bags (for smaller pieces) were plastic while the rest were paper.

Europe, The Netherlands

Yes, but only for the instructions, set 60444.
The parts were still in plastic bags.

Have to look at other sets I recently bought (60414, 60443, 31153), these are still unopened.

For 2024, only 30 of 76 and not in the 40xxx sets.
And for this year, I noticed that Grahame had paper bags in 40757, me not.
I haven't build 40756 for now.

I live in New Zealand, way down the bottom of the world, and every 2024 set I bought had paper bags, except for 10327 and 75372.

well...
first of all, they are not paper bags.
Second: the paper bags often contain plastic bags inside

US. I have gotten a few clear paper bags, however they feel and sound just like the old plastic bags. I have never seen the new white paper bags, and have only seen around 1-2 of the brown ones.

@ClutchPowers7306 said:
"United Sates here, I have gotten one single paper bag in an early released Avatar 2 set, for one of the big animal heads, that was two years ago haven’t seen any since. "

I'd guess that part was made in China, being hyper-specialized and IP-restricted. They've done this going back to at least the Toy Story 3 sets, to make it more affordable to produce these one-off molds. The parts are produced, individually bagged, and packed in bulk before being shipped to wherever the sets are packed. With TS3, some sets even included a strip that was impulse sealed to form compartments for each specific character's parts. So far, this sort of inclusion is the only source of paper bagged parts in NA, that I can recall hearing about. I do have the D&D set, but haven't opened it, so that's likely the only set I own that has a paper bag of this sort.

@LachlanStott:
You might try holding the bag by the perforated end, and giving it a quick shake to help settle all the parts into the larger section before tearing the end off.

@WizardOfOss:
Since review copies have to be handled outside of the normal product pipeline, it makes a certain amount of sense that they would be distributed from a single location. I mean, they could send copies to the NA headquarters for individual shipment, but I don't know that they'd really save enough money on shipping to come out ahead on that. A good follow-up question would be if these boxes are representative of what they'd look like on store shelves. NA boxes always have piece counts and locally-compliant product warnings (like those massive white insets that tell you not to swallow batteries). European boxes don't include the piece count or the same warnings. If the boxes all look the same, regardless of where the reviewer lives, then it's just a case of getting product that was produced for a foreign market.

@tedgarb:
Now that makes complete sense. Virginia has the advantage of being able to get set up with the latest/greatest from the very start. They can't impact production when there isn't any, and there's no old equipment to dispose of before you can put the new stuff in place. Mexico, on the other hand, is probably running at capacity. Once Virginia opens, then they can pick up some of Mexico's workload, which would give Mexico the breather it needs to do a full changeover. And if it's a hard wax, I wonder what that means for a set that's exposed to high temperatures.

@Murdoch17:
I did both builds of the Renegade, and neither included a single paper bag.

@PjtorXmos:
The coating is how they seal the bags shut. They bond it to one side of the paper stock used to produce the bags. As it's folded into shape, they can then use an impulse sealer to fuse the two layers of coating together, since the only other option to bond two layers of paper together would be to apply glue of some sort.

@dodrian:
No LBR stores have been receiving new shipments of plastic PAB cups, so all that means is they haven't burned through their inventory yet. There's no sense in throwing unused plastic cups away if the goal is to keep plastic out of the landfill. My local store has been using boxes for large, small, and minifigs since sometime last year.

@TheOtherMike:
Yellow box GWPs are produced outside of the normal product pipeline. The parts are hand-packed, which annoyingly allowed them to skimp on the Mimic and only include the four eyes called for in the instrucitons. I bought five extra copies of that set, and have now used up all 24 eyes (including building the copy I got free with the main set). I'd love to have six extras, or to have had to purchase one less set.

@legoapprentice:
I mean, I can't speak for anyone else, but I absolutely did need that copy of Barad-dûr.

@Alia_of_AGL:
I'd expect the employee gifts are packed and distributed in the same manner as the review copies of retail sets.

The thing is: I already had my first paper bags in Monkie Kid sets of 2022; yet the majority of bags are still plastic. Not that it matters much, as tha paper bags are plastic coated.

I've had paper bags in the last 5 or 6 sets (big or small ) I have built. I appreciate the use of paper, as a way to be more ecological. But as an AFOL I liked clear plastic bags better, as I could easily see through if a little part was stuck in the folds of the bag... I now check 2 or 3 times to be really sure that all the parts came out of it. So that is a bit of a nick pick, and I will get used to it. So paper bags are fully ok for me.

NA here, none that I can recall for me. It's possible I've forgotten (post above me says MK came with paper, but I don't remember getting paper in those and I've gotten a few). I've received the little folded leaflet saying to expect paper maybe a dozen times, though.

I just built Tudor Corner, the newest set purchased. Plastic bags only (as with everything so far) but the instruction book came in a soft paper envelope instead of the usual rigid one, which I’m assuming is of the same type as the new paper bags for bricks.

I encountered my first paper bags when opening 42167 Technic Garbarge Truck yesterday.

Here in Germany where I live, some of the new sets contain only paper bags, some contain a mix of paper and plastic, and some still contain only plastic bags. Granted, the latter variant is getting rarer and rarer.

US here. Money and lack of space have caused me to slow my buying, but even in 2024 sets I haven't encountered a single paper bag.

@sklamb said:
"Clearly there's a lot less plastic in the new bags than in the old ones--and it's probably a different kind of plastic as well. Americans are encouraged to recycle things like milk cartons and envelopes with windows, which seem very similar to TLG's "paper" bags. Believe it or not, the company probably has good (meaning, among other things, not "greenwashing") reasons for the material it has chosen and the way in which it is rolling out the transition.

Also, the only kind of plastic which is being recycled sustainably seems to be what's used in juice and soda containers. At the moment, claims that other plastics can be usefully recycled are, in general, greenwashing. The amount of microplastic particles building up in the environment is becoming another major concern--another argument in favor of reducing single-use plastic wherever possible.

Of all the reasons I can see for criticising TLG, I would say the issue of packaging is way down the list."

By law, carbonated beverage manufacturers have to take back their recyclable containers, which means they either had to come up with a way to truly recycle them, or they had to explain to the entire nation why they weren't bothering to (and may have been forced to warehouse the crushed containers if they couldn't find a place to landfill them). Coincidentally, it turns out PET is one of the easiest plastics to recycle, since degradation can be easily reversed, and recycled containers don't taint the taste of the product they contain.

However, they are definitely not the only stuff that's being recycled. I've seen park benches with plastic planks that are made out of 100% recycled post-consumer plastic (this brown color is an odd byproduct of the blending of compatible plastics, not something that they actually used pigments to achieve). And Walmart has its vests, which is probably how a lot of other cheap but durable synthetic cloth items are produced (think tote bags). I mean, it's not huge volumes, but it's also not nothing. We're doing better with tires, for sure, but tires are pretty much all made of the same stuff. They haven't figured out ways to recycle all types of plastic, and those they have figured out are often more expensive than just using new plastic. They may require tons of labor, tons of mechanical processing, tons of chemical processing, or a mix of the three. And if the reclaimed product is objectively inferior to new stuff, you won't be able to recycle it back into the same products. You'll have to find places to install park benches, or companies that will buy truckloads of cheap vests to use as a company uniform. And the vests are going straight in the trash when they get worn or damaged, which doesn't do anything to improve the percentege of plastics that have been recycled at least twice.

Ironically, one use of plastic "recycling" is to replace coke as a source of carbon in the recycling of steel, but any headway on legitimately recycling plastics (i.e. not exporting them for someone else to landfill, not burning them for energy because you aren't allowed to landfill, etc.) requires both coming up with an economical method of recycling the waste plastic, and also finding ways to use the recylced plastic (since many manufacturers don't want to, or aren't legally allowed to, use recycled plastic in their products). In a way, it's kind of like trying to cure cancer, because while it's all cancer, no single cure is going to work on every type of cancer.

They are plastic lined paper bags so are not recyclable anyway. They are truly awful things as Lego pieces get stuck in them. But do I feel better throwing them in the bin?…Yes. I feel like I’m saving the world! Tudor Corner had plastic bags but the instructions were in some god awful paper bag. Built 6 of the smaller 2025 sets yesterday. 2 were paper. 4 were plastic

Yes, have encountered them with the majority of new purchases and honestly makes the sets feel of lower quality. I hate them and it feels like part of the Lego experience has been lost. The 'paper' still involves plastic anyway and doesn't appear to be recyclable due to this. There's a 'rip here' line, but it never rips properly along the line meaning you'll likely end up with it ripping across the middle requiring you to pour both sides out.

Just feels like it's less intrinsically Lego when compared to the plastic bags, it's more likely that a piece will get caught in the bag/lost/tossed away as they are not see-through. Couple this with a lot of the newer sets having smaller box sizes, lower piece counts per price and generally feeling like the plastic is made differently.

I'm worried Lego's quality is decreasing while price is increasing. Feels like another company using the shield of 'doing good for the planet' as a method of doing worse by the customers to increase their profits. These paper bags, decreased box size and improvements in printing should mean the prices should be cheaper, instead we keep seeing prices rising.

@PurpleDave said:
"And if it's a hard wax, I wonder what that means for a set that's exposed to high temperatures.
"

Carnauba wax has a very high melting point, which boxes of LEGO sets would be very unlikely to reach.

US, still haven't seen a single one. Granted, I don't buy a ton of sets at the moment, but have definitely gotten a fair share in the last 5 years. I was surprised with the Great Deku Tree, since I expected that to have paper bags and maybe those newer collapsible boxes. Maybe in the next year?

Canada. I have only seen one paper bag in all the sets I have built over last few years, and that was what the sails came in for 10335.

Germany.
Thus far 90% of regular boxed sets produced in 2024 or later that I have came with paper bags. What was odd though, is that occasionally there was a plastic bag inside a paper bag (and I'm not talking about fancy printed parts in single bags).
Polybag sets and baseplates are still plastic bagged.

Side note: Almost all of these bags seem to be coated... *eyes roll*

I recently opened the tudor corner and only had a paper bag holding the instructions.

United States, never seen this mythical paper bag you speak of. I've bought all star wars sets, every year. Also buy other staff, but yet to see a paper bag.

I have seen a few of them including in the small City Space mech and I think one of the City Jungle sets. Neither of the 2 2025 sets I bought (the farm tractor and the hospital bed race car thing) had paper bags.

Mostly paper bags here in France, although it's not uncommon to get plastic small part inner bags within outer paper bags. This seems random at first sight and I did not observe any difference from sets bought from my local retailer or online from Lego (which usually ship from Belgium).

It's harder to see if you have a stuck part, but it is also easier to empty the outer paper bags once you get used to it. The inner are another story, I think they should also rip along the "top" instead of in the middle, with an accordion, like outer ones.

Not a single paper bag here, though I don't buy more than a handful of new sets a year.

I've encountered a couple sets with paper bags in the Middle East. I don't buy that many sets though, so it might be more common than my personal experience would suggest.

I haven't opened a lot of new sets recently, but I've not seen a paper bag in mine or the ones I gave my nephew for Christmas. Since I'm in the UK it sounds like it's only a matter of time.

I do recycle the plastic bags because supermarkets here collect soft plastic packaging: crisps packets, wrappers and that sort of thing. But they are still annoying, because they're bouncy and they take up space. The last set I built I ended up folding them carefully so they took up less space. I'm assuming the paper ones will be easier in that respect.

Here in NZ, a few of my recent sets (purchased via LEGO's NZ website but shipped from Australia) have had paper bags. Initially I thought that those recently purchased with plastic bags were 'old' stock but watching YouTube clips of the same sets being opened and built I've realised that they are actually different from the UK/European sets which are in paper bags. And they're not actually 'old' sets but were released in the latter half of 2024.

@R0Sch said:
"Sorry, can't answer the poll because I ran out of space to open and build new sets... a year ago. :("

I hear ya. I’ve run outta’ shelf, wall space.
Need new display cabinets stat!

@TheRichrocker said:
"Austrian here. I'd say the majority of City and Friends sets I've purchased in the last two years contained paper bags but the Harry Potter sets had their pieces still in plastic bags."

That's intersting. Would there be any reason for them to produce different lines at different factories?

@legoapprentice in United States…
“Unpopular opinion here - but I think it’s hypocritical and disingenuous how the AFOL community acts like this is a big deal and shakes its collective finger at TLG over this. The entire hobby revolves around our purchase and consumption of plastic. And buying a couple thousand pieces of plastic for enjoyment and then scolding the producer for packing those pieces in 10 plastic bags is just responsibility shifting. If we were as environmentally conscious as we act in these comments, we should make sure we’re asking ourselves “do I really need that Barad-Dur” before we obsess over, and criticize TLG over, the associated packaging. I decide to participate in this hobby and I can accept my role.”

This!
LEGOapprentice is absolutely spot on.
Not unpopular LEGOapprentice.

His comment should be pinned to the top.

@DoonsterBuildsLego said:
"All my recent sets have had paper bags (about 5 or 6 sets) and couple of "poly bags". I was skeptical beforehand but actually like them. My take:
+ they are packed better in the box. This means I've not had crumpled instructions
+ they open easier with rear off, especially for my daughter whole really struggled with plastic bags
+ the pieces seem to tip out better, so less chance of them getting stuck. With the white paper, it's easy enough to check inside so loss of transparency isn't an issue

One negative is that each bag, once opened, is 2 bits: the main bag and the tear off bit, so tidy up is a bit more fiddly. But that is a small point. "

Only encountered one set so far with the paper bags - Tudor Corner; I actually find that pieces do get left stuck in the corners of the bags which you then can't see...

@Scarilian said:
"These paper bags, decreased box size and improvements in printing should mean the prices should be cheaper, instead we keep seeing prices rising."

Funny thing is, implementing all these changes costs money. So does giving your employees raises. And when your suppliers and utilities raise their prices because they also gave their employees raises.

@RTS013:
The sorting process is going to vary by region. In some places, they still sort everything by hand, because labor is cheap, and the machinery to automate the process is not.

@LegoMiniNZ:
We're seeing 2025 polybags that are still polybags.

@legoDad42:
11 likes, which does make it plural. In a two-way tie for tenth most popular comment, so hardly a plurality.

@Scarilian said:
"These paper bags, decreased box size and improvements in printing should mean the prices should be cheaper, instead we keep seeing prices rising."

Err - you do realise that the price for everything - LITERALLY EVERYTHING - has gone up dramatically over the last few years? And by a much higher percentage than Lego prices.

In what economic model would you expect a luxury item like Lego to flow against that trend?

I live in the United States and I still have never received any paper bags in any set I have purchased.

Speaking as someone from Australia, every set I’ve bought from September onwards has been entirely or at least majority (only sub-bags are plastic) Paper bags.

@PurpleDave said:
" @legoDad42:
11 likes, which does make it plural. In a two-way tie for tenth most popular comment, so hardly a plurality."

What he's saying is what everyone knows, but won't admit it.

I haven’t even bought any sets for 2025 yet. So we’ll see once I get my hands on the Speed Champions F1 bundle box.

@legoDad42 said:
" @PurpleDave said:
" @legoDad42:
11 likes, which does make it plural. In a two-way tie for tenth most popular comment, so hardly a plurality."

What he's saying is what everyone knows, but won't admit it. "

If you read the other comments, people don't like knowing that the packaging for their hobby is going to end up in a landfill. They aren't much happier when it gets incinerated, but at least in some instances this is used for power generation (so something was getting burned, even if it wasn't the packaging). Nobody buys this stuff planning to put the _product_ in the trash. If it's that big an issue, then you'd hate to find out how much clothing ends up in landfills. Can't really walk around naked everywhere, though.

Australia here - the cockpit in the Milano came in a paper bag. That was it. Rest has all been plastic - technic, speed champions, star wars.

@kkoster79 said:
"In the US only the influencer marketing network or LAN get's paper bags the rest do not.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqhB2hOg0Yo Jang Bricks has a good video on this."

I saw this article and immediately thought of Jang lol

@Decat2 said:
"Most of my sets last year had paper bags, this is in Australia."

Interesting, as I’m in New Zealand (which shares the Australian warehouse) and I have still not received a single set with paper bags.

And yet I’m also in New Zealand and have still not had a single set with any paper bags. I do have a bit of a backlog but have built a number of 2024 sets with no paper in sight and no new boxes yet (the lift off lid type) either…

For everyone saying the paper bags are "harder to see if empty", that's not really a problem. Yes, it's hard to "see", you can always just lay a bag flat and smooth it over with your hand. Super quick and its what I do with the plastic bags already anyway.
¯\_(?)_/¯

Not seen a paper bag yet, but there might be some in my as yet unopened backlog from the last year or so. Only made the Pumpkin and the London Phone Box during 2024, and they were both in plastic bags!

My winter village Santa's post office came with paper bags. My son and I strip the WV sets every year to rebuild the next Christmas. I found that with a little care opening and some strategic folding I was able to reuse the original packaging to store the set away. That never would have worked with the plastic bags and I would normally have to use (more plastic) sandwich bags for storing the parts. A double win IMO. I'm all for it!

It's a shame that the paper bags have an inner lining making them ineligable for recyling with paper and card with my council... :/

all the recently bought sets have contained paper bags but to be honest i do not like them at all since they are not even pure paper. Now its not only plastic which will be produced, now more Trees have to die for the packaging as well.
Also the unboxing experience is rather not there because all the pieces are hidden.
I used to unbuild sets from the end to the start and reseal the plastic bags to have a new set experience again if i want to. Now that i can forget with paper bags as well.

TLG should concider producing less plastic in total! In other words: Why the hell every freakin niche gets lego sets!? Or who needs yet again another millenium falkon or the 20th hogwarts castle? Or Catching constatly new customers with sets almost nobody in the comunity asked for.. That is exactly what need to be stopped! More then 300 new sets every year. That, in my opinion is absolutely not necessary! Only for their own profit.. Lego tries to get through to anyone which is a bad idea for the environment..

Lego sets containing paper bags is just greenwashing, since they arent pure paper and here in germany more difficult to recycle then the standart plastic bags! Does it always have to get worse? Never is something getting better, not even our beloved brand lego.

@TheOtherMike said:
" @Oli said:
"Why the hell every freakin niche gets lego sets!? Or who needs yet again another millenium falkon or the 20th hogwarts castle? Or Catching constatly new customers with sets almost nobody in the comunity asked for."

As for retreading subjects that they've already done, new fans won't have those older models, and even those who have the previous iterations sometimes enjoy seeing how the new ones are done (said the guy who owns ever minifig-scale Y-Wing). As for "sets almost nobody in the community asked for," no company can rely on its existing consumer base forever. Because a company needs to attract new customers if they want to stay in business."

Well, then someone needs to agree that you cant have everything in life. Simple as that.

And btw, kids will be born, there is your new customers. Almost all kids will encounter Lego at some stage, most of them very early ;-)

My first set with paper bags was 76960, and the majority of the new sets I bought during the past year had paper bags in them. Really miss the plastic bags, have accidentally thrown away some small extra pieces although I thought I checked the bags carefully.

To all N-A people here, below article might explain why paper bags in N-A are delayed. Basically, the new factory in Virginia was planned to open in 2025 but is delayed to 2027. Because of this they installed a temporary packing facility, which is probably still using plastic bags, because apparently the factory in Mexico (where most N-A bricks come from) is not converted to paper bags yet.

The delay of he Virginia factory is partially outside LEGO's control. Not sure why they did not convert the Mexican factory, but maybe this is because they plan to move the packing facilities to the new Virginia factory, and do not want to spend the money to convert it anymore.

https://www.manufacturingdive.com/news/lego-delays-richmond-chester-virginia-plant-production-2027/

@darthsutius said:
" @Scarilian said:
"These paper bags, decreased box size and improvements in printing should mean the prices should be cheaper, instead we keep seeing prices rising."

In what economic model would you expect a luxury item like Lego to flow against that trend?
"

The product needs to remain within the affordability of the audience - and the primary Lego audience is children. I don't see them getting latched onto Lego as easily due to this which could result in problems as the AFOL population slowly ages out or moves onto other things. A few people buying a $1000 Death Star won't be enough to off-set the loss of audience long-term - unless Lego is legitimately shifting its audience to older fans as opposed to children.

You only would need to implement these changes once then they become part of the production line. Prices should'nt be continually rising when they are introducing cost cutting measured disguise as 'for the planet'.

Only reason prices are continually rising is because Lego needs its profits to increase each report in order to remain attractive to investors.

@PurpleDave said:
" @Scarilian said:
"These paper bags, decreased box size and improvements in printing should mean the prices should be cheaper, instead we keep seeing prices rising."

Funny thing is, implementing all these changes costs money. So does giving your employees raises. And when your suppliers and utilities raise their prices because they also gave their employees raises."

The cost to make Lego products has been decreasing with automation and improvements in technology along with Lego themselves exprimenting with finding ways to decrease the costly plastic use.

While implimentation of these aspects would cost money, it's not a long-term increase in cost to decrease the cost - so we should'nt be seeing an associated permanent rise in set prices. Buying and implimenting a packaging method in your factories to pack them in paper would take time and be initially costly, but the savings from the reduction of plastics would easily cover that.

@PisceanPet said:
" @LachlanStott said:
"I think the little paper internal bags have their tear mark too far down the packet. it should be closer to the top so you don't get pieces caught as you're trying to open them and they go flying across the room.
From Aus - less than 5% of sets in the last year have had paper bags"

With you on that one, tearing them in the middle causes bits to fly out and get stuck in all the corners. I now have a pair of scissors on hand to open them right at one end. the big outer bags are fine but the little ones need improving."
For the larger bags, I just tear them at the perforation. For the smaller bags, I had the same issue as you, so worked out a technique to prevent scattering the parts all over the place. I still start at the point indicated but instead of tearing them all the way across, I just tear off a corner. The parts are then easily poured into a dish. A quick palp of the bag to ensure no parts have been left behind and I’m good to go.

I don’t recycle any of the bags - large or small - until the set is complete just to be sure there are no ‘seam bandit’ parts that I missed.

I had one, in https://brickset.com/sets/10321-1/Corvette

In Portugal a few sets already have paper bags. But the majority are still in plastic.

I opened and built the Creator 3 in 1 panda set earlier. 5 bags, all paper but the inner bags for bags 4 and 5 were plastic, the rest of the inner bags were paper.

@Oli said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
" @Oli said:
"Why the hell every freakin niche gets lego sets!? Or who needs yet again another millenium falkon or the 20th hogwarts castle? Or Catching constatly new customers with sets almost nobody in the comunity asked for."

As for retreading subjects that they've already done, new fans won't have those older models, and even those who have the previous iterations sometimes enjoy seeing how the new ones are done (said the guy who owns ever minifig-scale Y-Wing). As for "sets almost nobody in the community asked for," no company can rely on its existing consumer base forever. Because a company needs to attract new customers if they want to stay in business."

Well, then someone needs to agree that you cant have everything in life. Simple as that.

And btw, kids will be born, there is your new customers. Almost all kids will encounter Lego at some stage, most of them very early ;-)"

No, you can't have everything. But if you're just getting into Lego Star Wars, and want, say, an X-Wing, but there hasn't been one on shelves for five years, you can't have anything, unless you resort to the secondary market. *That's* why Lego keeps recycling subject matter. As for your second point: yes, new customers come in all the time, that's true. But Lego still has to appeal to those customers. What appeals to today's customers won't necessarily appeal to tomorrow's, which is why they do stuff that their current customer base may not care about. Or maybe tomorrow's customers *will* want some of the same things as today's, which (again) is why they revisit stuff they've already done.

@strangeworld said:"My first set with paper bags was 76960, and the majority of the new sets I bought during the past year had paper bags in them. Really miss the plastic bags, have accidentally thrown away some small extra pieces although I thought I checked the bags carefully."

That's why I never throw a bag away until the instructions have told me to open the next one, or that the model is finished. And as I said, the only paper bag I've encountered was the one holding the dino body in 76960, so my "Oops, that piece didn't come out of the bag" issues have all been with plastic bags.

I opened my Blacktron Renegade yesterday and thought "When is LEGO is moving to paper bags?"

At least the stupid paper insert saying LEGO is changing over the paper bags didn't fall out of the box. How much paper was wasted for the millions of these advertisements and pages inside LEGO instruction manuals?

I'm surprised to read in the comments here that another LEGO fan from the States DID have paper bags in their Renegade.

I'll be happy to finally see what they're like sometimes this year, I guess.

I also purchased the new City Space sets so maybe that has paper bags?

@TheOtherMike said:
" @Oli said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
" @Oli said:
"Why the hell every freakin niche gets lego sets!? Or who needs yet again another millenium falkon or the 20th hogwarts castle? Or Catching constatly new customers with sets almost nobody in the comunity asked for."

As for retreading subjects that they've already done, new fans won't have those older models, and even those who have the previous iterations sometimes enjoy seeing how the new ones are done (said the guy who owns ever minifig-scale Y-Wing). As for "sets almost nobody in the community asked for," no company can rely on its existing consumer base forever. Because a company needs to attract new customers if they want to stay in business."

Well, then someone needs to agree that you cant have everything in life. Simple as that.

And btw, kids will be born, there is your new customers. Almost all kids will encounter Lego at some stage, most of them very early ;-)"

No, you can't have everything. But if you're just getting into Lego Star Wars, and want, say, an X-Wing, but there hasn't been one on shelves for five years, you can't have anything, unless you resort to the secondary market. *That's* why Lego keeps recycling subject matter. As for your second point: yes, new customers come in all the time, that's true. But Lego still has to appeal to those customers. What appeals to today's customers won't necessarily appeal to tomorrow's, which is why they do stuff that their current customer base may not care about. Or maybe tomorrow's customers *will* want some of the same things as today's, which (again) is why they revisit stuff they've already done."

You can't always get what you want, but if you're the biggest retail chain that carries their product, and you want an X-Wing to stock on your shelves, you better believe they're going to design one that you can sell. Retailers do drive a lot of their business choices, and in the case of SW sets, they want recognizable spacecraft.

@Decat2 said:
"Most of my sets last year had paper bags, this is in Australia."

That's funny because none of the sets I bought here last year had paper bags! Still yet to see any.

I found paper bags in one set yet - 10391 Over the Moon with Pharrell Williams (bought in Poland).

What I have found in my recent sets are not paper bags at all - it is a multilayer tetra-pack style bags with top paper layer. Much worse than just transparent plastic.

@kkoster79 said:
"In the US only the influencer marketing network or LAN get's paper bags the rest do not.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqhB2hOg0Yo Jang Bricks has a good video on this."

Update I got my first paper bag in the US which was the polybag converted now to paper in the 30701 Botanical set Field Flowers. Kinda cool to see this, but not in a "set" like inside a box.

I haven't seen any paper bags, but to be faiiiiir I haven't opened any large sets in a while. Who has time for LEGO? I only have time to buy, not to build or enjoy.

@PurpleDave said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
" @Oli said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
" @Oli said:
"Why the hell every freakin niche gets lego sets!? Or who needs yet again another millenium falkon or the 20th hogwarts castle? Or Catching constatly new customers with sets almost nobody in the comunity asked for."

As for retreading subjects that they've already done, new fans won't have those older models, and even those who have the previous iterations sometimes enjoy seeing how the new ones are done (said the guy who owns ever minifig-scale Y-Wing). As for "sets almost nobody in the community asked for," no company can rely on its existing consumer base forever. Because a company needs to attract new customers if they want to stay in business."

Well, then someone needs to agree that you cant have everything in life. Simple as that.

And btw, kids will be born, there is your new customers. Almost all kids will encounter Lego at some stage, most of them very early ;-)"

No, you can't have everything. But if you're just getting into Lego Star Wars, and want, say, an X-Wing, but there hasn't been one on shelves for five years, you can't have anything, unless you resort to the secondary market. *That's* why Lego keeps recycling subject matter. As for your second point: yes, new customers come in all the time, that's true. But Lego still has to appeal to those customers. What appeals to today's customers won't necessarily appeal to tomorrow's, which is why they do stuff that their current customer base may not care about. Or maybe tomorrow's customers *will* want some of the same things as today's, which (again) is why they revisit stuff they've already done."

You can't always get what you want, but if you're the biggest retail chain that carries their product, and you want an X-Wing to stock on your shelves, you better believe they're going to design one that you can sell. Retailers do drive a lot of their business choices, and in the case of SW sets, they want recognizable spacecraft."

.... but, sometimes.... you get what you need!

Ooooh, yeah!!!

@Sethro3 said:
"I haven't seen any paper bags, but to be faiiiiir I haven't opened any large sets in a while. Who has time for LEGO? I only have time to buy, not to build or enjoy."

I have the time (especially since my stroke), but not the space.

When will the results of the poll be revealed?

Never seen a paper bag from sets sold over here in Singapore...I think this is mostly a european thing so far? Hopefully will get to see em soon

I voted 'no' a few days ago, but then I got my first paper bag with 60448 yesterday.

Zero paper bags yet here in the USA for me and I’ve even bought half a dozen 2025 sets too!

Of my recent purchases I've only found paper bags in 76424 Ford Anglia (2/2 bags) and 21060 Himeji Castle (13/18 bags, the other five were plastic). As many others I despise them, it's inconvenient to not be able to see the parts before opening, pieces gets stuck (especially in the small inner bags) and the perforations are just symbolic and doesn't work at all. They pretty much never tear cleanly (even when I try folding back and forth first), as the perforations on each side doesn't align (but are a few mm offset), the material is *way* too strong (maybe suitable for polybag sets, but total overkill for bags in a box), and so heavy that any benefit from using paper is cancelled out by simply using (and needing to transport) more material.

This is pure greenwashing (similar to the attached soda bottle caps), it causes inconvenience for the users while not benefiting the environment at all.