Sustainable Furniture helps your organization and the environment in a multitude of ways. In fact, sustainable furniture can even save money. Let’s take a deeper look at sustainable furniture versus fast furniture.
We have all seen fast furniture. Perhaps your company has even purchased fast furniture in the past. Companies purchase fast furniture pieces that ship quickly from online retailers. They arrive in many boxes to be assembled after delivery. The convenience of purchasing these items quickly is often overshadowed by their poor quality. Fast furniture is not built to last long. It quickly finds its way into city dumps, often within just a few years.
Fast Furniture Issues
At Eustis Chair, we are contacted almost daily by folks who are looking to replace their sub-par “fast” furniture. These clients have already realized fast furniture is unsustainable. It is bad for their annual budget. It is also bad for the environment. No one should have to purchase new furniture every 3-5 years. According to the EPA, furniture is the least likely item to be recycled. In 2018, 80.1% of furniture goods that were disposed of were sent to landfills. This disposable attitude towards furniture has got to change.
How To Reduce Your Footprint
There are many steps your organization can take to help reduce the environmental impact during the furniture purchasing process.
- Do not purchase plastic furniture. Plastic furniture is bad for the environment. You have to replace it so often, it is also bad for your budget.
- Research furniture manufacturers. You will want to find a manufacturer that has sustainability practices in place. These include using sustainable raw materials, manufacturing the furniture in an FSC-certified factory, and recycling packing materials.
- Only purchase furniture that comes with at least a 10-year warranty. You want to buy furniture built to last. Quality furniture is easier to recycle or refurbish than “fast furniture”
- Purchase wood furniture. Wood is a sustainable material, unlike other options such as plastic, steel, or iron alloys. You can change quality wood furniture to match your space. In fact, you can re-upholster seats. Indeed, you can re-stain or paint wood, time and time again. Quality furniture is an investment that grows with your space over time.
- Buy furniture from a company that has a policy of taking back used furniture. You can refurbish quality furniture. However, for the most part, you cannot refurbish fast furniture. Eustis Chair is happy to take back your old Eustis Chair products to reduce the environmental impact.
- When chairs fail, it is most often at their joints. Eustis Chair revolutionized chair joints by creating our own proprietary joint we call the Eustis Joint. This means furniture from Eustis Chair lasts for decades.