Furniture’s impact on Earth, we can do better!

If you want to know how much impact our furniture has on the environment just do a quick web search.  There are tons of opinions out there on the topic but to be honest a lot of the information I read didn’t really tell me much.  As a result, we figured we’d chime in on the topic here at Paper Blog as our world’s furniture consumption is enormous and significantly impacts our planet.  In the U.S. alone, retail sales for furniture is in excess of $100 billion a year with over 30,000 retail sales outlets and a few thousand manufacturers who mostly import product from Asia.  This doesn’t factor in all of the used furniture outlets like craigslist, salvation army, consignment stores, garage sales, newspaper listings, office furniture, etc.   Our homes and businesses are loaded with different furniture pieces of all kinds.  The reality is that we manufacture a lot of new furniture on planet Earth when we have a ton of furniture already available to us.  So, what harm does new furniture have on our environment?  There are obvious things like deforestation as the core of any furniture is typically made with wood.  Some lower cost furniture is made with alternative products like MDF or particle board.  These materials are even more harmful to our environment because of the significant emissions from the toxic glues and chemicals used in the construction.  Furniture waste would also have to be considered, a lot of furniture ends up in U.S. landfills letting toxic paints, glues, and chemicals seep into the Earth.  All in all, it’s easy to see furniture consumption has significant environmental consequences much like our current building materials.  It’s also easy to see we have simple solutions like recycling to create repurposed furniture (upcycled furniture).  Repurposed (upcycled) furniture is currently just a tiny fraction of overall furniture sales so big changes would need to take place in order for the environment to benefit.  I hope the popularity of repurposed furniture (upcycled furniture) continues to grow in the world as it provides considerable environmental benefits as it eliminates both the manufacturing of a new item and the addition of waste to a landfill.  It would be great to see a day when a repurposed (upcycled) piece of furniture is more valuable and stylish then new furniture. That would be a good day for the planet, thanks for reading!

Sheeps just keep giving, Eco-friendly carpet!

In a past blog we’ve talked about how sheep’s wool is used as an eco-friendly building material in the form of home insulation.  Well, the sheeps in New Zealand want you to know that wool isn’t just for textiles and insulation, it also makes for a non-toxic eco-friendly carpet.  Standard carpet is typically made from polypropylene, nylon or polyester or some combination of those materials also combined with wool.  Polypropylene, nylon and polyester are petroleum based products that carry environmental consequences.  Now, that’s not to say a sheep doesn’t have environmental consequences as livestock in the world are major producers of greenhouse gas pollution.  As a result, there are experts that would probably challenge wool as a cut and dry eco-friendly carpet or building material input.  Whatever the case, wool is certainly natural and non-toxic which is also very important when it comes to carpet.   Possibly an even more eco-friendly carpet would be one made from recycled content like recycled plastic bottles.  U.S. manufacturer Mohawk makes a product called Everstrand with a patented process that takes premium PET from the highest-grade polymer, strengthens the fiber, and removes dirt-attracting residue with a multi-step purification system.   I think it’s pretty to safe to say the world of carpet has multiple eco-friendly options, I hope the options continue to develop.  Thanks for reading!

Holy Green Page

We’re full of confusing titles here at Paper Blog, let me explain this one. Holy as in Holy Moly and Green Page as in almost every company now a days has a Green Page or other Eco-Friendly related web page.  See, about a year ago I spent 4 months researching today's building materials and other home improvement related products including furniture, etc.  After scouring thousands and thousands of related company websites I came to realize a couple things about the 'eco-friendly shout out' corporate green page.  First, almost every company website (maybe 95%) in the building materials or home improvement world has a web page dedicated to their eco-friendly efforts.  An eco-friendly responsibility page has almost become a requirement in the building materials industry.  It's to the point where if you don't have a dedicated eco-friendly page, you'll probably get called out on it by some customer someday. Second, less than half of the Green Pages actually had anything to do with being eco-friendly.  I’m not trying to be critical, but as I read these pages the typical content seemed to be a challenged marketing writer's attempt at making a business that has no eco-friendly aspects, seem eco-friendly.  Now don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of companies out there that are actually doing things with in or outside of their business that helps our environment.  Even if their business has no eco-friendly aspects, companies have found ways to help our  planet through special programs and green efforts  Many thanks to those marking a difference and thanks for reading!

The Eco-friendly Modern Kitchen coming soon!

What does an eco-friendly kitchen look like?  Well, they come in different sizes and shapes but they’re always beautiful and of course, almost harmless to our planet.  In today’s blog we’re going to discuss the things that can make remodeling your modern kitchen eco-friendly in design and building materials.  These eco-friendly building material ideas will work for any kitchen, including small & galley or open and spacious kitchens.  Let’s kick off this eco-friendly kitchen remodeling discussion with cabinets.  If you’ve ever purchased kitchen cabinets before you probably know the choices and supplier types are endless.  Now a days, modern kitchen cabinets come in all different styles, quality levels, toxicity levels, and manufacturing locations.   You can affordably buy pre-made cabinets that were made overseas with toxic glues that contain loads of formaldehyde.  If you have a little more room in your budget you can have custom cabinets made on a local level.  But watch out because custom cabinets can also be loaded with formaldehyde.  When it comes to eco-friendly kitchen cabinets it all starts with them being non-toxic.  Today, the most eco-friendly non-toxic materials being used for cabinetry are bamboo and wheatboard.  Bamboo is a rapidly renewable material while wheatboard is made from recycled bio waste content, both can be made non-toxic.  Modern kitchen cabinets can also be made from non-toxic plywoods like oak, pine, and maple.  Whether or not wood cabinets can be considered eco-friendly is dependent upon what type of forest in which the wood came as well as your personal interpretation of wood as eco-friendly.  Many experts believe forest conservation would be an important step in combating global warming.  Now don’t forget, eco-friendly can also mean salvaging the cabinets you already have.  Some non-toxic paint or natural stains could help save your old cabinets by making them more modern.  Any time you extend the life of cabinetry that’s eco-friendly in our book.

Onto kitchen countertops, and you probably know what we’re going to say.  Yes, we love recycled paper countertops, it’s out there now!  We love them all over the house but our favorite in the kitchen is EcoTop.   EcoTop is a product that combines both recycled content in the form of recycled paper fibers and rapidly renewable content in the form of bamboo fibers to create a beautiful countertop material that has tons of character and will last for decades.  Another eco-friendly countertop option for the modern kitchen is recycled glass countertops.  Recycled glass countertops are really sharp but be careful in regards the recycled glass countertops that contain cement or concrete.   By many standards recycled glass countertops that are made using cement would not be considered eco-friendly.  Reclaimed wood pieces can make for an affordable eco-friendly countertop. With proper sealants old doors or other wood panels with character could become kitchen countertops.  Creating an eco-friendly backsplash might be the easiest thing to DIY in your modern eco-friendly kitchen.  If you can find an old pallet with nice patina you can create a reclaimed wood backsplash that’s unmatched.  Or if you’re the artistic type can try creating a backsplash out of recycled glass pieces and resin.  If you have some room in the budget for a kitchen backplash, you could consider eco-friendly panels made from recycled plastic or handmade tiles created from recycled porecelain tile.  Let’s not forget the floor!  Bamboo, cork, or reclaimed wood can make for beautiful eco-friendly kitchen floors.  Always check to see what’s under your current floor before you buy any materials, there could be an old wood floor underneath that can be brought back to life with some sanding and finish.  Another eco-friendly option in modern kitchen flooring would be marmoleum which is a non-toxic eco-friendly lineoleum made from bio waste and other recycled materials. Oh, and don’t forget some modern LED lighting, that always brightens up a modern eco-friendly kitchen.  Whatever your eco-friendly tastes we’re sure your eco-friendly kitchen will look great!  And the planet will thank you for it, thanks for reading!