Saving and generating renewable resources has been a top priority for IKEA since its beginning. In an effort to build more sustainable home furnishings, the brand’s design team focused on how waste, including plastic bottles and glass, could be made into new products.

Every year, about 100 billion PET water bottles are consumed worldwide. After an intense collaboration between designers and suppliers, product developer Anna Granath and her kitchen colleagues at IKEA ended up with the kitchen door KUNGSBACKA, made of recycled wood and foil from recycled PET bottles. “Our products are purchased by many people, and by offering more sustainable alternatives, we actually have the opportunity to make a difference,” says Anna. “Therefore, we started looking at how to replace the new material with recycled materials in our kitchens.”