Ikea to ban single-use plastic from stores and restaurants

Ikea is phasing out single-use plastic products from all of its shops and restaurants. 

The company announced Thursday that it will stop selling single-use plastic in its locations and that the products will be completely phased out by 2020, according to CNN. 

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The products the furniture giant will stop selling include straws, plates, cups, freezer bags, garbage bags, and plastic-coated paper plates and cups. Company-owned restaurants will also stop giving out plastic straws, cups, plates, cutlery, drink stirrers and plastic containers. 

In the announcement, Ikea said the move is part of a broader plan to be “people and planet positive by 2030.”

CNN reports that Ikea also has a goal of purchasing 100 percent renewable energy by 2020. In addition, the company wants to make its home deliveries zero emission by 2025.

“Through our size and reach we have the opportunity to inspire and enable more than 1 billion people to live better lives, within the limits of the planet,” Torbjörn Lööf, the CEO of Ikea’s parent company Inter IKEA Group, told CNN. 

The move from Ikea comes as many cities and business address the environmental issues associated with plastic products. Cities such as Miami Beach, Fla., and Seattle have instituted bans on plastic straws over concerns about ocean pollution. 

In May, Alaska Airlines announced that it was phasing out single-use, nonrecyclable plastic stir straws in favor of compostable versions made of white birch.