IKEA to clean India’s air

In what is a very novel move by the furniture giants, IKEA plans to buy tonnes of waste straw from rice harvest in India. They plan to process this waste and use it to make their supreme quality furniture.

Heart of the matter:

Every year during the winters many cities in Northern India face a terrible amount of smog due to the burning of these waste straws. Delhi, Indian capital has been the most affected by this during recent years. At one point the air quality had become so bad that it was equivalent to smoking 40 cigarettes a day!

Farmers burn these crop wastes as it is the cheaper and most efficient option available to them. This also allows them to plant wheat in a couple of days after they finished growing rice. The smoke from these burning crops is the major reason of the poor air quality in the Indian capital.

India is the first country where IKEA is planning to use waste materials as the raw materials for their products. Furniture made from this raw material will be available in 2019 for sale in India.

“Starting off in India, IKEA wants to turn rice straw into a new renewable material source for IKEA products. The ambition is
 to create a model for how to reduce air pollution that could be replicated in other megacities,” 

Helene Davidson, sustainability manager at IKEA Purchasing south Asia.

In a time where it has become extremely important to reduce pollution, this step by IKEA is what other leading organizations should inspire from!

Great job IKEA!