IKEA chose Earth Day 2009, April 22, as the official day to announce they would offering disposable plastic bags.
IKEA's eco-friendly initiative has been a long time coming, with the Swedish king of flat-pack furniture encouraging customers to bring their own, or pay $1 for their giant (and I do mean enormous) branded, reusable, highly durable, Ikea Blue Bags instead.
In October 2007, IKEA Canada started IKEA's Bag the Bag program, which involved charging customers 5 cents (proceeds went to Tree Canada) for every plastic bag, similar to the way much of Europe's stores have done for the last decade or so.
"The project was an enormous success, seeing a 90% reduction in the use of plastic bags in only six months," an IKEA Canada email said.
Starting July 1, 2009 IKEA Canada will no longer offer single use plastic bags, so make sure to BYOBB (bring your own Blue Bag)!
What Makes This Trend Stand Out
- Sustainable Packaging
- Disruptive innovation opportunity: Develop eco-friendly packaging alternatives to single-use plastic bags for retail businesses.
- Reusable Shopping Bags
- Disruptive innovation opportunity: Design and market durable, branded reusable bags that can replace disposable plastic bags in various industries.
- Plastic Bag Reduction Programs
- Disruptive innovation opportunity: Create and implement initiatives like Bag the Bag program to encourage customers to reduce their use of plastic bags.
Sectors Adopting This
- Retail
- Disruptive innovation opportunity: Develop sustainable packaging solutions and promote the use of reusable bags in retail stores.
- Packaging
- Disruptive innovation opportunity: Design and manufacture eco-friendly packaging alternatives to single-use plastic bags for a variety of industries.
- Environmental Organizations
- Disruptive innovation opportunity: Collaborate with businesses to create plastic bag reduction programs and raise awareness about the environmental impacts of single-use plastics.
