Ikea to buy back unwanted UK furniture in green push

London

IKEA is offering to pay UK consumers for their unwanted items in a bid to lower waste headed to landfills.

The Swedish furniture retailer will allow returns of certain fully-assembled furniture items, such as dressers, sideboards and desks, in exchange for a voucher. Ikea will offer to pay 30 per cent to 50 per cent of the item's original value depending on its condition. The average price for items eligible for return is £29 (S$54). Any furniture returned to Ikea will be either resold in stores or recycled.

Ikea has been testing furniture resale in Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland for more than a year. It had planned to launch a broader service last year, but that was postponed due to lockdowns.

"Our research shows that there's huge demand to buy quality second-hand products," Greg Lucas, country sustainability manager for Ikea UK, said. As workers start returning to the office amid rising vaccination rates, there could be demand to return some work-from-home items that may no longer be needed.

Ikea is one of a number of companies trying to find ways to reuse or recycle material to minimise the impact on the environment and to meet the demands of more socially conscious consumers. BLOOMBERG