How IKEA Is Using Technology to Reduce Its Food Waste by 50 Percent

IKEA is much more than a place to find ready-to-assemble furniture. The chain is also a culinary giant, serving, among other Swedish delicacies, millions of meatballs each day. Food is such a large part of the brand that IKEA is now funneling resources into reducing waste in its cafes, Fast Company reports.

The plan is to cut food waste in IKEA’s restaurants and smaller bistros in half by the year 2020. To do this, the company has already implemented some innovative technology in many of its locations. As of May 2017, approximately 20 percent of all IKEA stores had added trash bins with specially-designed digital scales beneath them for measuring tossed food. After throwing away items, like old salmon or surplus cinnamon buns, employees use the touch-screen above the bin to document exactly what went into it. The screen responds with statistics about the food’s cost and its contribution to IKEA’s carbon footprint.

As staff members use the system, it collects data that will eventually be used by the restaurants to modify their production practices. Seeing that waste peaks at certain times of day, for example, lets IKEA workers know they should be preparing less food during that timeframe. And if one type of food is more likely to end up in the trash can than others, they may respond by ordering less of it.

Another consequence of the system may be preventing food waste that was never necessary in the first place. The United States wastes about 40 percent of its food each year, and a lot of that product is salvageable. By engaging with its employees every time they chuck something into the garbage, IKEA is forcing them to think about the larger impact that food waste creates.

The digital scales have already saved 80,000 pounds of food, or about $1 million. The chain is now installing them in all 400 of its stores across the globe. The initiative is the latest step in IKEA’s march toward making food a more central part of its business. Within the past year alone, IKEA has launched a cookbook-inspired marketing campaign and teased the possibility of some standalone cafes.