Millions of shipwrecked Lego still washing up 25 years after container disaster

BEACHGOERS in Cornwall, UK routinely find Lego pieces washing up onshore – here’s why.

Lego toys have been appearing on the southwest coast of England for 25 years after a container ship was hit by a rogue wave in 1997.

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The ship, named Tokio Express, contained several dozen containers onboard that were swallowed up by the ocean, including one that held 5 million pieces of Lego.

The event has been designated the “Great Lego Spill” and is considered to be one of the worst toy-related environmental disasters as even in 2022, the ocean is still spewing Lego onto the shore.

The spill has been documented by Tracey Williams for years – this month she published her findings in a book entitled Adrift: The Curious Tale of the Lego Lost at Sea.

“In 2010, I moved to Cornwall to be close to my family, and on my first trip to the beach, I noticed Legos from the spill again,” Williams told Live Science.

“I was amazed that it was still washing up after all that time,” she added.

Williams has also taken to Instagram (@legolostatsea), where she boasts thousands of followers, to share her Lego-finding journey.

Interestingly enough, as Williams showcases in both her book and Instagram, many of the uncovered Lego pieces were meant to be a part of sea-themed sets.

Among the minuscule bricks lost at sea were 418,000 LEGO flippers, 97,500 scuba tanks, 26,600 life preservers, 13,000 spearguns, and 4,200 octopuses.

Williams also noted in her book that the Lego spill potentially traveled incredible distances – even as far as the southern shore of the continental United States.

“A Beachcomber in the USA had discovered a black LEGO octopus tangled in thick dried seagrass on Galveston Island, Texas,” she wrote, adding that it could have been from the spill.

To this day, it’s not clear just how many Lego pieces are still in the ocean, but it seems that the lighter pieces are the ones that most commonly wash up onshore.

Beachgoers have also spotted some heavier Lego pieces, which are potentially washing up due to containing air pockets.

“What we’re finding now are the pieces that sank as well as the pieces that floated,” Williams said.

“It’s providing us with an insight into what happens to plastic in the ocean, how far it drifts — both on the surface of the ocean but also along the seabed — and what happens to it as it breaks down,” she added.

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