IKEA Instructions for Upcycling Furniture
The Swedish group Ikea is determined to reduce its impact on the environment, there are no shortage of ideas! Some more successful, and others, more representative of banana marketing.
We like them! The tests that are being done in the UK to buy the Ikea furniture that is no longer used and resell it themselves in what they call 'Circular Hub'. Or that more and more, we have the option to buy spare parts.
Furniture can be reused, recycled, or readjusted rather than thrown away. It is more, an aptitude, than the own work of reconverting them into something new.
But, if we don't want to think too much. From Ikea Canada, they just launched detailed instructions on how we can reuse some of your furniture.
The "recycling instructions" are designed in the same style as the legendary furniture assembly brochures, step by step. They show how to recycle furniture and other items that would otherwise be thrown away.
The IKEA guides that can downloaded in PDF offer instructions for three levels of users; beginners, with an example of turning a candle holder into a flower pot.
The intermediate level, for more handyman users. For example, how to turn the famous Frakta bag - that blue one - into a small vertical hanging garden.
And the advanced level. Here, you are already good with DIY and power tools, for example of how to turn a closet into a beehive.
This is the latest initiative by the Swedish chain to focus its marketing on how we can live more responsibly with its products, which are not known especially for being durable.
The Ikea phrase … A small change, can change a lot!
"We really believe in the power of small sustainable acts that people can do"according to Ami Warrington, a marketing communications specialist at IKEA Canada.
We can access from Ikea Canada to see the different instruction guides from HERE.
Ikea Norway recently launched "The Trash Collection". A campaign to educate users that discarded Ikea furniture (catalog style) that is in hundreds of landfills, can have a second life.
Additionally, earlier this year, Ikea released teardown instructions for six popular products. That effort, combined with its furniture rental programs and the buyback initiative outlined above, are Ikea's latest moves to praise sustainability.
All of this is in line with the Ikea's commitment to becoming a fully circular company by 2030. This requires designing products framed in a circular economy, using only renewable, recycled and recyclable materials.
It is clear that Ikea products are not known for their longevity, but it must be recognized, that their focus on marketing encourages us to look a little more closely at our consumption, while acknowledging their weaknesses and the responsibility to provide tools that reduce, in some way, their impact.
Remember that we have an extensive article that discusses the types of recycling and garbage containers, as well as how to use them.
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