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There’s a lot of reasons to love IKEA. For starters, it’s basically an adult Legoland that allows home decor enthusiasts to build minimalist Swedish-style furniture pieces for their home. And we can’t believe how airy, chic, and unique its home essentials are. Plus, they’re ridiculously affordable. Now, the global home goods retailer is giving fans another reason to appreciate it, with plans to become “fully circular” by 2030. It’s the latest step in IKEA’s decade-long sustainability strategy, with plans to open its first secondhand store in Sweden later this year.
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What does “fully circular” even mean?
The Swedish retailer aims to design all of its products to be 100 percent circular from the beginning. This means thinking of each product it produces as a raw material that can be used again and again throughout its life. Repairing, reusing, reselling, and recycling products is a big part of IKEA’s plan, as well as using only renewable or recycled materials and developing circular capabilities within its supply chain.
What was the inspiration behind the initiative?
With an increasing awareness of the impact consumption has on the planet, IKEA addressed its part in the environmental crisis, such as how its flat-pack business model contributes to overconsumption and waste. Rethinking its impact, the IKEA Group Sustainability Strategy for 2020 was born.
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What will the secondhand store offer?
Many DIYers and home decor enthusiasts already love how kind IKEA is to their wallets, but with a secondhand store in the works, things are about to get even more affordable. IKEA will start selling refurbished furniture and home furnishings in the ReTuna mall in Eskilstuna, Sweden. The ReTuna mall is the world’s first “recycles mall,” where everything sold is refurbished or recycled.
Though the details are still relatively vague, the secondhand brick-and-mortar location will reportedly repair gently used IKEA items and resell them. After refurbishing, items once damaged with dings, tears, or scratches will look as good as new, and will be sold at a fraction of the original price.
“By opening this shop, IKEA is now taking the next step,” according to an IKEA press release. “Working with ReTuna gives us the possibility to better understand why certain IKEA products turn into waste, what condition they are in when discarded, how people reason when deciding to throw away our products, and if there’s an interest in buying the products if we manage to save them.”
If the secondhand venture proves successful, expect IKEA to open many more locations.