India is facing a severe deterioration in its air quality and the Swedish home furnishing retailer IKEA has a plan to combat the increasing AQIs of the country.
Set up in India just three months back, IKEA has come up with a solution involving utilization of rice straw to convert into a renewable material source for IKEA products.
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The AQI in the North has deteriorated steadily due to the stubble burning practiced by the farmers and IKEA suggests the first prototypes, that are based on rice straw and will be launched by the end of this year and will start selling in India in 2019-20. It would gradually expand to other global markets, according to IKEA in a statement.
The company, under its ‘Better Air Now’ initiative, aims to take action against on one of the largest global environmental issues- air pollution- and will start from its newest place of residence, India.
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Paired up with central and state governments, private companies, innovators, NGOs, suppliers and farmers, IKEA envisions a long-term ambition to contribute to villages reaching zero rice straw burning.
As a first step, the initiative focuses on the northern parts of India, including the NCR that covers cities such as New Delhi, Gurugram and Faridabad.
North India has 9 out the of 10 most polluted cities in the world and the burning of crops, a residue from rice harvesting, became the major contributor to air pollution and smog in India.