Our take on plastic

Let the youngest ones join the table

Plastic is a key material for IKEA and remains so going forward. It is strong, durable, lightweight and versatile. It is a main component in a large amount of our products and has a wide variety of applications from surface materials such as paint and foil, to screws and shelf pegs. There is a lot of valid concern regarding how plastic impacts the environment and at IKEA we take this very seriously. As part of our larger circular journey and transition from virgin fossil based material, we are working hard to change all plastic in our home furnishing products to plastic made from recycled and/or renewable raw materials.

All children, no matter where they grow up, have similar needs the first years – for example to try out new exciting food and practice their eating skills. A good way to learn is to watch how others do. These insights guided our engineer John Forsén as he developed ANTILOP – a highchair that lets children and their parents spend time together around the dining table. Along the way, John also learned that one way to create affordable furniture that simplifies people’s lives is doing things a bit differently.

IKEA products are normally developed through collaboration between a designer and an engineer – the designer does sketches and the engineer makes constructional drawings. But with ANTILOP, John went straight to creating a computer model. "I had an idea of how the finished result should look, so I started by calculating where the legs had to be, and at what angle, to get a safe and stable construction", he explains.

A smart construction led to a low price

Only recycled or renewable plastic

Plastic is most commonly derived from oil and gas, which are non-renewable fossil sources. These sources do not renew themselves and will eventually be depleted. Our ambition is that by 2030, all plastic used in our products will be based on renewable or recycled materials. Renewable plastic is made from materials such as vegetable oil, corn, wheat grain and sugar cane. Recycled plastic allows us to give a second life to non-biodegradable products such as PET bottles that would otherwise end up in landfill. Using recyclable sources also lessens our dependency on oil as a raw material. Currently more than 40% of our plastic products are based on recycled and renewable materials and our aim is to reach 100%. As we add products made from recycled and renewable materials to our offer, we hope to inspire other companies to do the same.

To get a low price, a simple construction was needed. "I focused on the necessities. ANTILOP is optimised to be strong and easy to manufacture. The fact that we use plastic and steel, and very little of it, enabled the low price", says John. The construction also makes it easy to bring the chair with you whenever it's mealtime out of the home. Or have an extra chair waiting at the grandparents when the grownups are out for dinner on their own.

A low price, but not at any cost

Phasing out single-use plastic

But the definition of good furniture covers more than a low price. The quality has to be there, too. And it is. We take the toughest demands in each region and by regular quality and safety inspections we make sure ANTILOP lives up to all of them. If a new law or standard is introduced we test the chair again. All in all, ANTILOP shows that doing things differently when creating good furniture can be just the way to do it.

Single-use plastic items pollute ecosystems if not disposed of responsibly. As part of our commitment to people and the planet, all single-use plastic products from the global home furnishing range were phased out in 2020. This includes items such as plates, cups and plastic straws offered in our restaurants, bistros, and cafes. These were replaced by disposables made from 100% renewable sources.

PET and PP, our most commonly used plastics

Polythylene terephthalate (PET) and Polypropylene (PP) are durable, hygienic and shatter-resistant plastics. They absorb very little water and have good chemical resistance. Both PET and PP can be reused and recycled, which reduces waste and gives the product several lives through use and reuse. PET is the most recycled plastic in the world and can be used for many different purposes such as plastic bottles and containers for packaging food and beverages as well as for personal care products, pharmaceuticals and many other consumer products. At IKEA we mainly use recycled PET in boxes, filling material for textiles and kitchen front foil. PET is approved by health-agencies as safe to use for food and beverage. IKEA uses recycled PET that is post-consumer based, which means it is based on collected and sorted PET bottles.

Clean and safe

IKEA takes product safety very seriously and all products are tested and comply with the strictest possible laws and safety standards on all IKEA markets. Customers should always feel confident that products bought at IKEA are safe and healthy to use. IKEA wants to minimize or totally refrain from the use of chemicals and substances that can be harmful to people and the environment.

Together, we can do more

Our journey towards only using recycled or renewable plastic will take some time and require new ways of doing things, but we are determined to take responsibility and find new solutions. We want to give our customers the possibility to choose products made from more sustainable materials that can be recycled again one day. Together, we can make a big difference!