IKEA Encourages Belgian Customers To Recycle Their Catalogue In Novel Way

The IKEA catalog finds its way into 4.8 million Belgian homes each annum, a statistic impressive by any measure. For a year it sits there offering a world of cheap affordable furniture that many of us know and love. But of course, for IKEA it's more than just a catalog, it represents 12 months of inspiring choices. Now to celebrate the arrival of their latest calalog, IKEA Belgium are asking customers to bring their old one back for recycling. Naturally, there's a twist.

IKEA describes the scheme,

You can now use your old IKEA catalog to read the new one thanks to this recycling idea. To celebrate the arrival of the new catalog, IKEA recycles last year's catalog into a unique cushion designed by internationally renowned designer Charles Kaisin.

IKEA is calling its fans to bring their old IKEA catalog to the store. IKEA will pass the 300 pages that have inspired them for a year through the shredder. The old catalog will be transformed into cushion filling for KÜSS, a pillow designed by designer Charles Kaisin.

I'm not sure if one can see it, but apparently the design itself was inspired by the concept of recycling celulose (pictured below).

Charlies Kaisin writes,

I drew the design inspiration from the cellulose molecule, the natural raw material of paper pulp. Styled and repeated into a visual structure it becomes its very own source of inspiration.

Charles Kaisin is an internationally renowned Belgian designer and graduate from the Royal College of Art in London. For over fifteen years he's been recycling newspapers, magazines, plastic bags and glass to furniture and design objects.

From catalogs to Christmas cards, you may remember the HO HO HO for Technical Achievement in 2014 went to Wieden + Kennedy, who took last year’s unwanted Christmas trees and recycled them into this year’s Christmas card. So, not entirely without precident, but a delightful and charming idea nonetheless.