Marks Ingka Investments’ first circular economy investment in China, targeting the country’s vast plastic market.
Supports Re-mall’s expansion of high-quality recycled polypropylene production from post-consumer food packaging waste.
Strengthens Ingka’s global push to scale solutions that prevent waste and boost recycled materials supply.
Ingka Investments, the investment arm of Ingka Group—the largest IKEA retailer—has made a growth capital investment in Shanghai-based Re-mall, a specialist in recycling post-consumer packaging waste into transparent recycled polypropylene (rPP).
Re-mall’s proprietary process overcomes key recycling challenges such as contamination from food residues, material quality loss across cycles, high processing costs, and fluctuating demand for recycled plastics. The company is one of the few global suppliers producing highly transparent pellets from post-consumer food packaging waste at scale, with applications ranging from storage containers and tableware to cosmetics packaging, toys, and textiles. Its materials are used by several blue-chip companies.
Lukas Visser, Head of Circular Investments at Ingka Group, said: “Re-mall’s strong supplier network and partnerships with leading Chinese food delivery service providers are already allowing them to create impact at scale for the local recycling market. By investing in Re-mall, we want to amplify this impact to help address a global plastic waste problem and contribute to the circular economy transition.”
China, one of the world’s largest plastic markets, is central to the global effort to develop circular waste solutions. This investment is Ingka’s first in the country within its Circular Investment portfolio, established in 2017 to back businesses tackling high-carbon footprint materials with limited recycling infrastructure.
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Pontus Erntell, President & Chief Sustainability Officer at IKEA China, noted: “This investment by Ingka Investments demonstrates our long-term commitment in China. To meet our customers’ needs for generations to come, we have both the responsibility and the opportunity to take a lead in accelerating the circular economy beyond IKEA, and the scale and innovation capabilities here in the Chinese market create significant opportunities for this transformation.”
Re-mall operates a facility in Jiangxi province, strategically positioned to access plastic waste streams from major cities including Guangzhou and Shanghai. The investment will fund increased recycling capacity and the development of new products.
Zhu Kuan, CEO of Re-mall, added: “We are happy to welcome Ingka Investments as a strategic partner in our mission to accelerate the circular economy in plastics. This collaboration marks a significant milestone in our journey to scale sustainable solutions globally. Together, we aim to transform plastic waste into valuable resources, contributing to a cleaner planet and a more responsible future.”
The move complements Ingka Investments’ stake in European plastics recycler Morssinkhof Rymoplast, reinforcing its strategy to expand the availability of recycled materials and cut CO2 emissions at scale.
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