IKEA’s Ingka, through its investment arm Ingka Investments, has committed growth capital to Re-mall, a Chinese recycler of post-consumer packaging waste, reported ESG Today.
The funding marks IKEA Ingka’s first circular investment in China, aimed at backing companies that are expanding recycling capacity and developing technologies to cut waste and boost the supply of recycled materials.
In 2017, Ingka Group introduced its Circular Investments initiative to advance IKEA’s sustainability goals, channelling capital into companies that boost recycling capacity or pioneer waste-reduction technologies, particularly in hard-to-recycle areas such as plastics, textiles, wood, food, and mattresses.
Earlier this year, Ingka pledged €1 billion for recycling infrastructure, aiming to expand the supply of recycled materials and cut millions of tonnes of CO2 by supporting businesses driving large-scale circularity.
Pontus Erntell, President and Chief Sustainability Officer at IKEA China, said the following:‘This investment by Ingka Investments demonstrates our long-term commitment in China. To meet our customers’ needs for generations to come, we have both the responsibility and the opportunity to take a lead in accelerating the circular economy beyond IKEA, and the scale and innovation capabilities here in the Chinese market create significant opportunities for this transformation.’
Shanghai-based Re-mall is tackling key obstacles in plastic recycling – from declining quality after repeated processing to contamination from food and packaging – with its own technology that produces clear recycled polypropylene (rPP) suitable for new product manufacturing.
Lukas Visser, Head of Circular Investments at Ingka Group, said that ‘Re-mall’s strong supplier network and partnerships with leading Chinese food delivery service providers are already allowing them to create impact at scale for the local recycling market. By investing in Re-mall, we want to amplify this impact to help address a global plastic waste problem and contribute to the circular economy transition.’
The investment will enable Re-mall to scale up its recycling operations and broaden its portfolio of recycled products.
Commenting on the investment, Re-mall’s CEO, Zhu Kuan, called the collaboration ‘a significant milestone in our journey to scale sustainable solutions globally’, adding that the partnership aims ‘to transform plastic waste into valuable resources, contributing to a cleaner planet and a more responsible future’.
