Ikea furniture recycling idea wins contest for Wilfrid Laurier students

A team ofWilfrid Laurier Universitystudents will have the opportunity to influence global furnituregiant Ikea, thanks to their own ingenuity and some cutting-edge technology.

Olga Dementev and four of her second-year universitycolleagues won a pitch contest aimed at WLU business administrationstudents that asked for ways to makeIkeamore sustainable.

Their idea: to have Ikeafurniture returned to itsstores so that it can be broken down and remade.

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"We'd essentially be taking old furniture regardless of material or size and make it into new furniture, which we would 3D print," Dementevtold The Morning Edition on Monday. 3D printers take scans of objects from droidsto body parts and reproduce them in exact detail.

Dementev said at first she and her team weren't sure how feasible the idea was, but when they looked into it they discovered almost any material can used so long as it's broken down the right way.

She said customers could bring in old furniture or have it picked up by IKEA during new furniture deliveries. The companyalready has a mattress recycling program that it could piggyback, she said.

Eco-friendly and durable

To show theirplan couldbe done, she and her team used a 3D printer in Toronto to make a stool top.

"We just wanted to show that it was very possible to make something that's very eco-friendly and it's kind of cool looking," she said, adding the model isbiodegradable and durable.

The team came up with its original plan in just three days, competing against 39 other teams.They also spent two weeks making a video and then a final presentation.

Dementev said the team will flyto Alberta to see IKEA's windmill farm, and will work with Brendan Seale, an IKEA sustainability leader, to work with him on the recycling plan, or possibly another idea.

The Swedish companyannounced a new location in Kitchener as part of a Canada-wide expansion of its retail operations last week.