The “Green” movement is a relatively new phenomenon. With more designers and customers looking for eco-friendly furniture, there are many new products on the market. But how do you know which one to choose? How can you bring “green design” into your home without spending a lot of money? There are simple guidelines to follow to be environmentally friendly.
Furniture can have a negative impact on the environment. This may not be obvious from the appearance of the sofa in the living room, but the question is: how was it built? Where did the material come from? How was the base cut and built? How are the pillows sewn? Background knowledge may reveal that it was built on machines that polluted the environment in the process. In addition, the removal of trees used in backwood has been shown to contribute to the massive deforestation of homes and wildlife-affected areas.
Eco-friendly furniture materials to see
One of the most important factors that make furniture eco-friendly is the material of the furniture.
Keep an eye on it while shopping:
Certified Sustainable Wood
Whether your furniture is made of wood, cloth, metal, plastic, etc., you have eco-friendly options. When the cavemen realized that the rocks weren’t the most comfortable to sit on, the trees were almost where they were looking, so let’s start there. The world needs more trees, so the practices that lead to deforestation are not good.
Trees not only absorb carbon dioxide to produce oxygen, but also keep the earth’s surface cool, keep it affluent, and provide a habitat that animals, insects, birds, and other plants call home. .. Needless to say, they support the lives of many people. Simply put, don’t ruin the tree. But there are sustainable ways to collect timber. The main sources are timber from sustainable forests, sustainable farms, and recycled timber. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is an excellent certification standard for managing logging management and promoting good working conditions.
Recycled wood
If wood is cared for, and sometimes not cared for, it can last a long time. Shouldn’t we be able to use all of the wood that exists right now? Many designers think and do this.
Recycled wood is usually made from old furniture, houses, or other items ready for friendly reincarnation, from faulty wood, or from factory scraps that make other things. Some of the recycled wood even comes from tree trunks floating downriver and downstream to the sawmill, or from the bottom of artificial tanks. Furniture made from recycled wood is a great example of resource efficiency but is usually available in smaller quantities.
Recycled plastic and metal
More and more furniture is made of recycled plastic and metal. For example, an icon chair made of recycled aluminum. Recycled materials require less processing and fewer resources and help support the recycled materials market. Technology is constantly evolving. In short, recycled plastics and metals are constantly improving in quality. But it’s not just about materials, so there are some basic guidelines to keep in mind when looking for furniture.
There are many that claim to be recyclable. It’s a loaded, meaningless word. If you want to spend money to make it, everything is recyclable. Therefore, coffee pod manufacturers are spending money to recycle pods into lawn chairs and garden compost. It makes people feel good. Making things out of new materials and calling them recyclable is marketing, nothing more. There are exceptions. Cradle to Cradle (C2C) certified products, such as Herman Miller and Steelcase certified office chairs, can be easily disassembled into parts and recycled at the end of their life.
They may start with pure materials, but they are designed to be recyclable. When buying furniture, keep away from “monster hybrids” (parts that are an inseparable mixture of materials). If it cannot be disassembled, the repair may not be successful.
Bamboo
You’ve probably heard that bamboo is grass, not wood. Bamboo represents a family of grasses of color, from small to large, and from lime green to pomegranate stripes. It’s incredibly fast and versatile, making it an unofficial poster material for environment designers and builders. Bamboo can be used to flatten floors, shape into furniture, press on veneer, slice to make blinds, or build an entire house. When you use bamboo in a building, you can earn LEED points by paying attention to where the architect or architect gets the bamboo. Most bamboo comes from China and is grown with little or no pesticides.
Keeping the grove healthy is much easier because it grows so fast. But that also means that you use a lot of water and harvesting too fast can reduce soil fertility. However, keep this in mind as some producers use pesticides and other chemicals. Another thing to keep in mind is that bamboo products contain glue. Adhesives may contain formaldehyde, depending on the supplier. In fact, I still don’t know what green bamboo furniture is.
Key features of environmentally friendly furniture
There are many features that can make furniture eco-friendly. Find them while you buy yours.
Durable and easy to repair
One of the most important aspects of environmentally friendly products (and this certainly applies to furniture) is durability. If something is difficult and/or easily repairable, it reduces the chances of reaching a landfill and can easily save money in the long run, even if it is more expensive at first. Even recyclable materials, if broken (and irreparable), require energy and other resources to reprocess and then replace.
Durable goods can be transferred from person to person. Even if your style changes and the kitchen table is no longer yours, a broken (and irreparable) table is probably attractive, but a good, sturdy table is almost always attractive to others. When throwing away your belongings, think about Craigslist, Freecycle, and eBay to find a new home.
Furniture by size and dimensions
Once you have decided on the type of furniture you need, it is of utmost importance to consider size and size. The size and size of the space in which the furniture is placed must be the same as the size of the furniture. Without proper measurements, you may choose furniture that may not fit in your space. Or you could get stuck at the entrance due to a lack of pre-management and pre-planning.
The space in the house determines the size of the furniture, as well as the distribution of the furniture. Before buying furniture for your home, make sure the size is suitable for the final design of the room. For example, if you have less space in your living room, you can opt for an L-shaped sofa or a sofa set with a diameter. Furniture can be arranged considering the size of the windows and the proximity of the doors. The large living space can accommodate large pieces of furniture and also offers options in the area between the dining and living rooms.
Use of material
You can choose the best furniture for your home according to the purpose of the material. There are also durable materials such as upholstered materials and wood. Other materials are delicate and can age over time without careful maintenance, but some furniture materials are never obsolete. Materials such as sea siamese wood, teak, genuine leather, artificial leather, marble, fabrics, and metals never become obsolete.
Flexible and small
Grandma’s sofa was big and heavy. It’s more expensive to rent a truck or mover than to buy a new one at IKEA. Nowadays, when everyone is talking about less life, think of smaller, lighter, foldable furniture that you can put away when you don’t need it. The dining table has a pull-down sheet that you can fold when you eat alone. Transformer furniture changes from a coffee table to a dining table as needed.
Use of material
You can choose the best furniture for your home according to the purpose of the material. There are also durable materials such as upholstered materials and wood. Some furniture materials are never obsolete, while other materials can be delicate and obsolete without careful maintenance. Materials such as sea siamese wood, teak, genuine leather, artificial leather, marble, fabrics and metals never become obsolete.
Low toxicity
If you buy furniture, take it home and put it in your room, it doesn’t stay there. Whatever it is composed of, it probably causes gas (or the release of matter into the air). Almost everything emits gas, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but treatment with synthetic materials or compounds can release toxic gases. Volatile organic compounds are the most common family of gas-releasing chemicals and are associated with birth defects, endocrine disruptors, and cancer.
In fact, research shows that the air quality in a home (or car) is often worse than outside. Everyone needs to be aware of the types of chemicals they bring back, especially if they have children, pets, or other family members who are close to the ground and leak easily. When it comes to furniture selection, there are some good ways to maintain the quality of the air inside. Greenguard is a certification that guarantees that furniture is non-toxic.
Herman Miller, Haworth, Knoll, and Izzydesign offer Greenguard certified furniture options. Also look for furniture that has not been treated or treated with natural materials, such as natural wood or brown leather finishes. Organic cotton is also less likely to be treated with toxic substances. Another great way to avoid toxic chemicals is to buy antique or used furniture that already emits most of the smoke (make sure it doesn’t contain bad things like lead paint). Please give me). You can intuitively see that the new one releases a more active gas. Think of the smell of a new car.
Tips for choosing good green furniture
Before you buy environmentally-friendly furniture, you need to have a good understanding of the furniture and make sure it is made of environmentally friendly materials and certified. Most of us are worried about the number of trees that will be logged to make environmentally-friendly furniture, as we are talking about environmentally-friendly furniture. In fact, trees are helping us in many ways, and deforestation is a major concern in all countries. To avoid these deaths, you can choose a sustainable way to collect wood, and this sustainable wood can be the most important part of eco-friendly furniture. Sustainable timber cultivation takes place in forests and farms.
Buy a place
Like food on a plate, you may be surprised that furniture materials have to travel miles before they reach us. If possible, place furniture near your home. This supports the local economy, small craftsmen and reduces the environmental costs of transportation (not to mention other types of costs).
Bring it back to life when you’re done
We cannot promise to love you forever or to keep your furniture needs unchanged. When you say goodbye to chairs, tables, beds, and dressers, you need to move to a good home. Sell it on Craigslist, eBay, or your local newspaper, distribute it on Freecycle, or add it to your next garage sale. You can also put a “free” sign and safely place it on the sidewalk.If you’re a cunning type, you can reuse a lot of furniture for new features or decorate it with new paints and finishes. Robust artifacts don’t have to be in the landfill forever. If your mission is to dive deep into the space for eco-furniture, put on a designer cloak and start touching.
Consider refurbishing old furniture or completely reusing other objects, such as this bathtub, which has been converted into an armchair. Cardboard can be made in a creative way. With fertile soil, you can grow your own furniture if you have the time. The Spanish group Drap-Art hosts an idea-filled reuse festival.
Avoid flame retardants
Because flame retardants are powders, they do not emit gas like other chemicals. Instead, they fall off the upholstery and mix with the dust in the house. The problem is that the bromine industry, which manufactures flame retardants, wants to maintain the market, even though the reduction in smokers has significantly reduced the risk of fire in the United States.
However, flame retardants are not very effective in slowing down fires-when an upholstery ignites, it burns as fast and releases many toxic chemicals.
If you are looking for new furniture, please contact the manufacturer for flame retardants. It also avoids foam products that are generally free of additional flame retardants and support cotton wool or down, which is less toxic when burned.
Buy vintage
With all the sophisticated, modern, and “green” brands on the market, it can be hard to remember that second-hand products can be the greenest purchase of all. Antique and used furniture does not require additional resources to manufacture. Often acquired locally (reduced transport) and pre-discarded to reduce the load on landfills. High-quality antique furniture also has excellent resale value (sometimes sold at the same price as purchased). This is certainly not the case with most new furniture, such as greens.
