Ikea acquires stake in plastic recycling plant

Swedish Ikea group acquired a 15 % minority stake in Morssinkhof Rymoplast Group, a Dutch plastic recycling plant. It is a sign of how important a circular economy is to the company. 

Supply of sustainable resources

It is the company’s first investment from the 1 billion euro it had set aside to assure its long-term sustainable resource supply. The company will spend the money on forestry activities or invest it in recycling companies or renewable energy and biomaterial efforts. Particularly the recycling industry is an indispensable part of the circular economy, which will be without waste.

Morssinkhof Rymoplast is a Dutch family business with several locations in the Netherlands and more than 50 years of recycling experience. It is considered one of the important European players in this regard, recycling used plastic from both consumers and industrial partners. Over the past few years, its processing capabilities were expanded to 200,000 tons and thanks to the Ikea investment, it can continue that growth, saving an additional 50,000 tons of CO² annually.

Help create a circular economy  

“The transition to a circular economy is very important if we want to keep meeting people’s needs and demands without exhausting our natural world’s resources”, Ikea head of sustainability, Steve Howard, said. “Ikea would like to help speed up this transition through several steps: investments; reuse waste in our own company and enable millions to live a more sustainable life at home.”

The investment is part of a wider Ikea Group approach to support strategic companies and targets. In order to become independent of resources and energy sources, the company already set aside 3 billion euro, including the aforementioned 1 billion euro provision. Since 2009, Ikea Group invested 1.5 billion euro in wind and solar energy, setting aside another 600 million euro for additional investments in this regard.