Every bottle, every can counts: Starting now, IKEA customers throughout Austria can donate their deposit on bottles and cans to a truly worthy cause. Through the Deposit Raising initiative, customers can return their deposit-bearing empties to the return machines at all IKEA stores in Austria and donate them. The donation to Volkshilfe supports children affected by poverty in Austria.

Since the introduction of the new deposit system for single-use plastic and metal beverage containers on January 1, 2025, all IKEA Austria stores have had return machines where IKEA customers can return empty deposit bottles from the IKEA range, as well as other deposit bottles and cans. When returning their empty bottles, IKEA customers now have the option of donating their deposit to the Austrian Volkshilfe organization for children living in poverty in Austria.

"At IKEA, we believe that a better home is the first step to a better everyday life—and this applies to everyone. Together with Volkshilfe, we want to provide support and thus more opportunities for children affected by poverty. Our "Pfandraising" campaign is a very simple yet effective way for our customers to help directly—it shows what's possible when we stand together as a community.“, explains Florian Thalheimer, Country Sustainability Manager at Ikea Austria, the idea behind the initiative.

The donations collected during the deposit fundraising campaign benefit Volkshilfe Austria's K.ARM.A campaign. IKEA has been demonstrating strong social responsibility and supporting this organization for many years. Last year alone (January 2024 to February 2025 inclusive), the Swedish furniture company raised around €30,000 for Volkshilfe.

"IKEA Austria continuously supports us in our work to combat child poverty. We are therefore delighted to be able to expand our collaboration with the "Pfandraising" campaign with a creative idea. Over 239,000 children in Austria live in overcrowded apartments. This is dramatic, as these children have no place to retreat, no quiet place to study, or room to invite friends over. IKEA's social commitment and this collaboration enable us to provide concrete help to children affected by poverty and improve their housing situation. I therefore hope that many IKEA customers will join the campaign and thus contribute to improving the housing situation for many children.“, says Erich Fenninger, Director of Volkshilfe Austria.