It also makes it hard to centralize type coercions and default values.

It’s easy to create bugs because the environment is a somewhat degenerate settings database.

Most programming languages vend environment variables as strings. This leads to errors like so:

also trying to expand the secondhand market for Ikea products. It’s one of a growing number of brands to consider what’s called extended producer responsibility,

finding ways to incorporate more recycled material, including recycled fabric, into its products.

Some of the company’s stores are experimenting with furniture rental.

If someone returns an old bookcase or dresser instead of leaving it at the curb, they will be given a voucher for as much as half of the original price of the item, depending on the condition

It’s one part of Ikea’s move to become a circular company over the next decade, meaning that everything it makes is designed to be reused, repaired, upgraded, or recycled, rather than ending up in a landfill.

Ikea is encouraging customers to bring back old furniture instead of buying more.