For the imminent arrival of Black Friday, the Swedish giant IKEA will launch a revolutionary “global circularity experiment” in which its stores around the world will start buying back old furniture from people to give it a second life.

“IKEA’s vision has always been to create a better everyday life for many people, which right now means making sustainable life easy and accessible to everyone. Being circular is a good business opportunity as well as a responsibility and the climate crisis requires us to radically rethink our consumption habits”.

The campaign, #BuyBackFriday, will take place between 24 November and 3 December in IKEA Retail stores in 27 countries and will promote and develop circular services and sustainable consumption for customers.

The project is simple, those who bring old furniture will receive an IKEA voucher to spend in store. Anything that cannot be resold will be recycled or donated to community projects to help those most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Rather than buying things you don’t need in this Black friday, we want to help customers give their furniture a second life instead of making an impulse purchase.“

If this experiment is successful, the goal is that by 2021 in every store there will be spaces dedicated to second-hand furniture and find repaired or renovated furniture at even cheaper prices.