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Looks like our favorite hold-all tote/breakout fashion star of the summer is getting a makeover: IKEA’s Frakta bag is going green.
Well technically, it’s going silver. At Democratic Design Day, an event where the Swedish retailer unveiled a ton of exciting new projects, an eco-friendly version of the Frakta made its debut. The design comes courtesy of Reform Studio founders Mariam Hazem and Hend Riad, and is a major step in the direction of sustainable design.
“We believe that design can solve stubborn problems and thus we started from a major issue in Egypt: waste,” said Hazem. Cairo-based Reform Studio specializes in producing furniture and woven textiles made from discarded plastic materials. Now, its founders are bringing their expertise to IKEA.
Every one of these special, sparkly
upcycles the equivalent of 32 packages of potato chips. Considering that chip bags are especially terrible for the environment thanks to their non-biodegradable composition, repurposing them into tote bags (or any other household items) is especially beneficial to the planet.
To produce the eco-friendly Frakta, IKEA will buy the silver packaging material directly from printers who would otherwise throw out the edges of packaging rolls. The reflective foil threads will then be worked into the new and improved tote bag.
These silver Fraktas unfortunately don’t hit IKEA stores until 2019, but for anyone hoping for a tote with an updated look a bit sooner there is a silver lining: Danish design studio Hay is releasing a green-and-white version of the Frakta this October. We look forward to seeing it transformed into trendy baseball caps in the near future.
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