Repurposed Furniture Equals Happy Planet!

I’m not sure if you’re aware but repurposed furniture (upcycled furniture) is trending in the world right now.  Unfortunately, trends seem to come and go but what if some how repurposed furniture became the most popular furniture sold?   We don’t usually talk hypothetical on the Paper Blog but I thought we’d step out a bit in this post.  To answer the question, a whole lot of things would change and our environment would probably come away the biggest winner. Before we get into answering this hypothetical question in detail, let’s first examine the current environmental benefits of repurposed furniture.  Repurposed furniture really makes two positive impacts to our environment.  First, by repurposing a preexisting item it prevents a new item from ever being manufactured.  If we reduce the manufacturing of new furniture on a mass scale that in turn would reduce deforestation or other materials consumption as well as transportation of the goods.  Second, by making a used piece of furniture into a repurposed new item, it prevents the original item from being added to a landfill or even worse burned.  

Ok, back to the question at hand.  What would change in the world if repurposed furniture became the most popular type of furniture sold?  I think it’s safe to say landfills would likely be significantly impacted as almost no furniture would probably make it there.  A large supply of used furniture pieces and other items would be required in order to make all the repurposed furniture needed.  Second, U.S. furniture imports would likely be severely reduced as demand would drop to make room for repurposed furniture.  Third, I think it’s safe to say there would also be a mass of U.S. jobs created as we’d need lots of upcyclers to actually make the repurposed furniture.  This level of job creation would certainly make a positive impact on the U.S. economy.  Finally, as mentioned above the planet would greatly benefit in a number of ways if repurposed furniture were to become the most popular furniture sold.  All in all, if repurposed furniture were to become the most popular furniture sold it would create positive changes for both our environment and economy.  I’m not saying this is a realistic change that’s going to happen anytime soon.  But it’s been fun pondering, thanks for reading!