RENSARE Clothes bag, set of 3, check pattern/grey black

Today, we spend more and more time outside the home. “If you’re constantly on the go, you need easy, organised solutions to be able to bring the things you need with you”, says Holly Harraway, who’s been involved in the development. “We talked to people with different lifestyles, interests and needs. What we found out made it clear that the bags had to be developed from an activity-based perspective.” Designed inside out “We used our knowledge of how to organise the home, to build solutions for the bags that make them functional and practical”, she says. It resulted in bags in different styles and sizes, for different needs and activities. With keyholders and compartments for laptops. But also, zip-up and hidden pockets for valuables – on the outside for quick access, on the inside for extra safety. “You want to be able to access your belongings quickly and safely no matter how or where you’re travelling.”

The fabric of the bags consists of at least 90 percent recycled polyester. “It is a sustainable material choice without sacrificing the look, function or quality”, says Holly. All in all, a solution for the many people and an affordable way to bring the most needed parts of the home with you. Everything in its place and a place for everything.

Originally, all polyester was made from oil-based raw materials which are not renewable but we are switching to only using recycled polyester. The good thing is that polyester can be recycled over and over, without negatively affecting the quality of our products. When we make products from recycled polyester, we give a second life to material that is not biodegradable and reduce the amount that may otherwise end up in landfill or the ocean. Instead, PET and other sources of polyester are used to make textiles, storage boxes, kitchen fronts and even lamps. Recycled polyester is just as good as virgin polyester in terms of looks, quality and function, and produces about 50% less in CO2 emissions. And the material is just as clean and safe in every way.

Recycled polyester makes us less dependent on oil. The amount we convert, is equal to the amount of virgin fossil fuel we eliminate from our polyester raw material (this excludes potential dyeing and other post recycled polyester production treatments). With some exceptions, the challenge is not the conversion of polyester into recycled itself, but to make it available to everyone by keeping it affordable. Buying low environmental impact products often comes with a higher price tag. We want to change that by working to make recycled polyester products more affordable and accessible to the many people.

IKEA is committed to end the dependency on virgin fossil materials and only use renewable or recycled materials by 2030. We are accelerating this movement for polyester in our range and aim to replace all virgin polyester in our textile products with recycled. In 2020, IKEA replaced 79% of the virgin polyester used in IKEA textile products with recycled polyester. In volume, this means we converted 130,000 metric tonnes of recycled polyester, and saved 200,000 tonnes of virign polyester. We haven’t reached our 100% goal yet, but we have come far and overcome many obstacles on the way. These volumes make us a leader in converting to recycled polyester and we hope that our decisions can inspire and motivate whole industries to change.

At IKEA, we demand that all recycled polyester used in IKEA products shall come from recyclers that are compliant with the Global Recycled Standard and traceability is secured to the IKEA product through requirements toward the IKEA Suppliers. By only using recycled polyester that meets the Global Recycled Standards we manage to secure social, environmental and chemical practices at the recycler’s production. We believe that the GRS standard is the best standard on the market today. We work with our partners and textile organisations such as Textile Exchange to further improve standards on recycled materials, including traceability of material beyond the recycling units.