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House of Trash by Miniwiz

 

• Eco-friendly home furniture isn’t just a concept. It’s a way of blending environmentally conscious practices with long-lasting sustainable furniture that is comfortable, desirable, and health focused.

 

• This fast furniture mindset continues to this day, eroding environmental health and draining pockets of money. However, a recent shift to eco-friendly furniture designs has the potential to change the game, friendly to the environment, your health, and your wallet.

 

• Here are the four most important things to consider next time you go purchasing a piece of home furniture:

 

1. Materials: Make sure your furniture is built with high-quality, sustainable materials.

2. Lacquers and Finishes: Look for furniture with non-toxic and environmentally friendly finishes.

3. Production Methods: Purchase furniture from eco-friendly, sustainable furniture companies.

 

4. Furniture Lifecycle: Build to last at least a lifetime.

 

• There are many ways to enjoy new home furniture while ensuring that whatever you purchase is eco-friendly and sustainable. With modern technology and innovative sustainability practices, even plastic waste littering the ocean can be turned into designer tables and desks.

 

Eco-friendly home furniture isn’t just a concept. It’s a way of blending environmentally conscious practices with long-lasting sustainable furniture that is comfortable, desirable, and health focused.

 

When you choose sustainable home furniture, you make a smart choice to support a sustainable lifestyle and show support for green manufacturing practices, safer working conditions, and reduced demand on natural resources.

 

 

This Guy Is Making Furniture and Buildings out of Your Trash | Nat Geo Live

 

 

Changing the Way We Use Furniture

Furniture was once sustainable and passed down through generations as cherished family heirlooms. Pieces were built to last thanks to high-quality materials and durable construction. “Eco-friendly” wasn’t a term of use during this time, but the idea was there.

 

People made furniture using materials on hand — typically wood, fabric, and metal — using each supply as efficiently as possible. If furniture needed glues, lacquers, or resin coatings, people used natural ingredients or non-toxic synthetics.

 

Then, in the 1970s, there was a shift toward throw-away furniture that gathered steam throughout the 1980s. By the 1990s, fast furniture had taken a firm hold in popular culture. Furniture was designed to be low cost and of low quality, and it played to the whim of seasonal trends.

 

This fast furniture mindset continues to this day, eroding environmental health and draining pockets of money. However, a recent shift to eco-friendly furniture designs has the potential to change the game. From recycling and upcycling to closed loop, circular production systems, the newest furniture solutions are friendly to the environment, your health, and your wallet.

 

What Is Considered Eco-Friendly Furniture?

Eco-friendly furniture follows sustainable best practices when it comes to harvesting resources, using recycled and upcycled components, avoiding volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and relying on locally sourced materials as much as possible.

 

The goal of sustainable furniture is to avoid building pieces that:

• Are high in toxins.
• Made of cheap, expendable materials that clog up landfills.
• Contain harmful chemicals and non-biodegradable or nonrecyclable components.

 

 

4 Things to Look for When Acquiring Home Furniture

Adopting an eco-friendly mindset when searching for new furniture will go long ways in helping you protect both your health and the environment. Here are the four most important things to consider next time you go purchasing a piece of home furniture:

 

1. Materials

Make sure your furniture is built with high-quality, sustainable materials.

 

Solid Wood Furniture

For wooden furniture, look for solid wood rather than plywood, medium density fiberboard (MDF), or particle board. Solid wood is:

 

• Easier to reuse

 

• Naturally strong

 

• Free of harmful chemicals like formaldehyde, toxic glues, and chemical resins.

 

Padded Furniture

Padded furniture and mattresses are full of hazardous inner materials like polyurethane foam, memory foam, synthetic latex, and vinyl. To protect your health and prevent more landfill waste, you should look for mattress and padding materials like natural latex foam, wool, and organic cotton.

 

 

Upcycled Furniture

Upcycled plastics provide another way to reduce waste materials and give existing materials a second life. Using furniture from reused, recycled, or upcycled plastics goes a long way to protect the environment and reduce waste.

 

2. Lacquers and Finishes

Beyond sustainable materials, look for furniture with non-toxic and environmentally friendly finishes. Synthetic ingredients in topcoats, sealers, paints, glues, and sprays can effectively negate all of the good that sustainable materials offer.

 

Mattresses and sofas can emit flame retardants like antimony, boric acid, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE), hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), or tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA). Lacquered, varnished, or painted furniture can emit VOCs and carcinogens like benzene, toluene, xylene, and formaldehyde.

 

Although VOCs and other chemicals are strongest during application, they continue to off-gas for lengthy periods of time. Off-gassing puts your and your family’s health at risk:

 

• Chemicals found in paint can off-gas for up to 6 months.

 

• Chemicals found in particle board or MDF can off-gas for up to ten years.

 

To reduce your exposure to toxins:

• Read all labels and look for materials or ingredients lists.

 

• Avoid standard lacquers, varnishes, and products mentioning flame retardants or stain repellents.

 

• Opt for paints, glues, and varnishes with low to zero VOCs, water-based finishes, non-methanol shellac, Tung oil or raw linseed oil finishes, or milk paint.

 

3. Production Methods

Eco-friendly furniture is great for the consumer, the environment, and the workers creating the products. When buying new home furniture, it’s best to opt for vintage and antique furniture that requires no new production. Another excellent option is to purchase furniture from eco-friendly, sustainable furniture companies. You can find many such companies online.

 

When you look up individual furniture pieces, read the descriptions and labels to make sure you know what goes into each piece. You can also look for certifications like Cradle 2 Cradle (C2C) Certified, Green Circle, GREENGUARD, Sustainable Furnishings Council (SFC), Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Rediscovered Wood Certification, Oeko-Tex, or Eco3Home.

 

Certifications cover various aspects of production. Most importantly, they indicate that companies and their furniture products are kinder to the environment, consumers, and workers.

 

You should also consider whether a furniture piece is made in a closed-loop system. Closed-loop systems produce minimal to no waste, reducing waste in landfills and preventing pollution.

 

4. Furniture Lifecycle

To be considered eco-friendly, furniture must not only be sustainably produced with eco-friendly materials, lacquers, and finishes, but must also have a certain lifecycle.

 

Furniture should be durable and built to last at least a lifetime. Two lifetimes would be even better, since this gives more opportunity for multiple generations or households to enjoy the same piece of furniture. Of course, furniture can’t have endless lifetimes — because this means that it isn’t biodegradable. If furniture accumulates in landfills and doesn’t break down, it can’t truly be eco-friendly.

 

There are many ways to enjoy new home furniture while ensuring that whatever you purchase is eco-friendly and sustainable. With modern technology and innovative sustainability practices, even plastic waste littering the ocean can be turned into designer tables and desks.

 

Miniwiz provides expert solutions for upcycling consumer waste into beautiful new products. To learn more about our solutions, view our newest works and reach out to discuss the next great upcycling opportunity.

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