Thesis 1: Cheap furniture does not care about the environment.
Here’s why. When you buy something that is made from cheap materials, it breaks eventually, and then you either have to do without or replace it. Doing without would be the most friendly option, but that does not work all that often and you still have to dispose of the broken furniture. That disposal probably means a landfill.
So a cheap piece of furniture broke and now is sitting in a landfill. All the energy that went into making it, the natural resources and materials, and any man-made resources (toxic or otherwise) are now waiting to rot. That is why cheap furniture does not care about the environment.
We have to have furniture so what’s the alternative? Buy quality products and choose to value durability and a good investment over getting any old thing at the cheapest price possible. Choose Green Designs which are “intended to develop more environmentally benign products and processes” [1]. These are designs that focus on using more natural materials (wood instead of plastics that can’t be recycled) and limiting the amount of natural resources required to produce a product. So we consume less.
What does this mean for you? Simple. Look for green furniture when you’re shopping. Don’t buys things that are going to break and have to be replaced in two years. It will probably cost you more in the long run and it chews up resources and gluts our landfills with things that don’t have to be there.
(Part II is forthcoming)
January 13, 2012
Fletcher (Durham Bookcases)
