Great furniture expresses your style and preferences. Choosing eco-friendly furniture shows you care about making choices that help the environment.
Tips For Choosing Eco-Friendly Furniture for Your Home and Garden
When you buy any furniture you first look at functionality: The types of pieces you need, how many of each, and the sizes. Then you decide on the style you want: modern, traditional, oriental, etc.
The next step is choosing materials; the materials distinguish eco- friendly furniture from the rest. Whether you are looking for garden furniture or furniture for inside your home, when you choose pieces made from eco-friendly materials you show your support for a healthy world.
What is Eco-Friendly Furniture?
Eco-friendly furniture is easy on the environment; it preserves natural resources, requires less energy to manufacture and transport, and releases fewer toxins into the air and water.
With so many products being labeled “eco-friendly,” it’s easy to lose sight of what it really means to be earth-friendly. Furniture may be considered eco-friendly if it is made from materials that are:
• Free of toxic chemicals;
• Manufactured efficiently, with minimal waste; and
• Durable and long lasting.
In addition, eco-friendly furniture materials are either:
• Recyclable;
• Recycled;
• Reclaimed; or
• Sustainably grown and harvested.
Furniture from Recycled and Recyclable Plastics
When manufacturers make an outdoor chair from recycled plastic, 240 fewer milk jugs go into landfills. Plus, when that chair has come to the end of its useful life, it can be recycled. Recycled and recyclable, the plastic garden chair is eco-friendly.
Manufactured wicker takes recycling to a new level. Made from High Density Polyethylene (HDPE), an environmentally conscious and recyclable material, wicker furniture is moisture, insect, rot, and chemical resistant. All weather wicker weave is built to last; it does not fade or deteriorate and can stay outside year round. The wicker garden set pictured here is stylish, comfortable, AND eco-friendly.
All-weather wicker sets are fully recyclable and are made in an eco-friendly way, here is one from Bridgman.
Reclaimed Wood Furniture
When old barns are demolished beautifully aged wood remains. With an eye toward preservation and conservation, artisans are reclaiming barn boards, joists, and flooring and turning them into unique pieces of furniture, from simple outdoor benches to finely crafted dining tables.
Saving old barn wood is just one way to reclaim wood. Now, environmentally conscious entrepreneurs are selling leftover wood to contractors and furniture makers. Each piece of furniture from reclaimed wood helps conserve the world’s resources.
Sustainably Grown and Harvested Wood Furniture
Furniture crafted from wood grown in forests that meet strict environmental standards is certainly eco-friendly. Rather than depleting resources, sustainable forestry ensures the forests continue to grow and produce quality wood decade after decade.
Eco-friendly furniture doesn’t need to look any different or cost more, but homeowners know their purchases are helping support the environment. Do you have any eco-friendly furniture pieces you’d like to brag about or suggestions for sourcing eco-friendly furniture?
How cool! At one of our local zoos there is a bench with a sign on it that it’s made from recycled milk jugs and the kids and I study it every time we go. It’s amazing – and totally AWESOME.
A new blog who tells abouth eco-friendly furniture:
http://mobili-ecologici.blogspot.it/
Honestly I’m fed up with the “single use/disponsable” culture, and prefer the “use and keep” one.
I made a small reserch on the web, and I found some eco friendly furniture
I love the idea of the old barn wood … what a great use for it. I’d also add that second-hand stores are great places to shop for Eco-friendly furniture. They might not have been manufactured in a green way, using green materials, but now that they are “in the system”, buying them prevents new pieces from being purchased. Wonderful post … thank you!