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Friday, April 23, 2004
By Tasha Eichenseher, E/The Environmental
Magazine
If you were to dissect a typical living-room couch, you
would likely find an environmental disaster:
a frame made of unsustainably harvested wood
that is treated with formaldehyde and varnish
that can pollute indoor air; unrecyclable foam
cushions dosed with flame-retardant chemicals
that accumulate in fish when released into the
environment; and upholstery colored with chlorine-based
dyes and tacked on with toxic glues.
In fact, toxic materials are used throughout the traditional furniture-making
process. The paints, varnishes, and waxes commonly employed can release the
volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are known to decrease indoor air quality.
One of the most common VOCs is formaldehyde, which is used in glues in pressed
wood products, such as particleboard, and is added to paints as a preservative
and to upholstery to give it a permanent-press quality. Formaldehyde emissions
can cause eye and throat irritation, allergic reactions, and possibly cancer,
according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
"Traditional furniture can off-gas for years," said Tom Heerman, co-founder of
Baltix Furniture, a four-year-old office furniture manufacturer in Minnesota.
Heerman says his company only uses
finishes that don't contain formaldehyde. Instead, Baltix dries products with
an ultraviolet process that prevents off-gassing.
San Rafael, California–based Tamalpais NatureWorks also uses toxic-free finishes
on its clean-lined furniture. The company uses paints, stains, and waxes from
BioShield, which makes its products out of citrus peel extracts, essential
oils, tree resins, bee waxes, and natural pigments. Many natural products experts
also recommend that people use water-based finishes and apply paints as powder
coatings to minimize VOCs.
Furniture and bedding is a $66 billion industry in this country, and the vast
majority of those products are still constructed in the conventional way?—
from declining natural resources. However, a handful of furniture makers are
blazing a more sustainable path.
"We're at the boutique stage now with 'green' furniture, with the exception of
Ikea," said Keith Winn of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). While furniture
that doesn't contain harmful chemicals or is made from environmentally friendly
resources is quite readily available online, most conventional retailers don't
offer it in their show rooms.
Seeing the Forest for the Trees
Wood is still the primary component of most furniture. In the face of devastation
caused by widespread deforestation, some furniture makers are turning to alternative
sources of lumber.
"While sustainably harvested wood has been available for some years, recycled,
reclaimed, and urban wood products are just beginning to enter the market," explained
William Callahan, founder of Tamalpais NatureWorks.
Reclaimed, recycled, and salvaged are terms that describe wood collected from
such sources as old buildings, boats, and fallen trees as well as from lakes
and streams. Urban wood usually refers to logs milled from city trees that
have fallen because of storms and age. Employee-owned Tamalpais makes some
of its distinctive furniture from wood salvaged from an 1888 timber mill.
Portland, Oregon–based Resource Revival started making coffee and end tables
from the salvaged fir beams of old houses in 2003.
"I see what we do as more like resourceful subsistence than an extension of the
industrial economy, except that we scavenge from the latter rather than from
the natural environment," said founder Graham Bergh. Resource Revival also uses
recycled bike components in a range of unique products, including eye-catching
tables.
The keystone component of Tamalpais furniture is actually recycled steel and
brass fasteners. The parts can be ordered separately so you can build your
own piece, ensuring easy disassembly down the road and allowing you to use
local wood, which reduces shipping and transportation costs.
For products made with new wood, look for a label from the Forest Stewardship
Council (FSC). Although the FSC has approved a few controversial certifications,
the overall program is a good indicator of commitment to sustainability.
If you don't see a label, ask, as many companies don't necessarily
advertise their use of certified wood.?Swedish furniture maker Ikea,
for example, uses FSC-certified material in some of its products but
doesn't use the label because of a complicated supply chain.
"We could have three or four suppliers for one product, and only one might provide
certified wood," said John Zurcher of Ikea United States.
Heerman of Baltix argues that wood is not the greenest option for building. "Because
wood takes a tree 10 years or more to replenish, recycling post-consumer
waste is the greenest method of making furniture; it stops materials from
going into a landfill," he said. Baltix creates attractive bookshelves, tables,
and desks out of "sunflower boards," which are made from the shells left
over from sunflower seed processing.
The company also uses recycled plastic, newsprint, cork, wheat straw, and
linoleum, a natural product of linseed, which can be produced in almost any
color and adhered to tabletops to add character. Baltix designs products
for easy disassembly, which makes repair and recycling easy. Products have
a lifetime warranty and can be sent back to the company at the end of their
use instead of to a landfill.
Keeping Things Covered
Furnature, based in Watertown, Massachusetts, is one of a handful of
companies using organic, chemical-free upholstery. The company started making
furniture for chemically sensitive people 12 years ago.
"It was not our intention to make an all-organic piece of furniture, but we found
that it was organic items that worked best for people with chemical sensitivities," said
co-founder Barry Shapiro.
Fifty percent of the toxic insecticides used in the United States are applied
to conventional cotton, argued Rebecca Zellmer, a product manager at online
retailer Natural-fibers.com. Natural-fibers.com is owned by the Green Culture,
which offers a wide selection of eco-friendly beds and mattresses, nightstands,
tables, dressers, and armoires.
Sandra Marquardt of the Organic Trade Association's Organic Fiber Council
said that while certification for organic cotton already exists, her organization
is also in the final stages of developing organic fiber processing standards
to cover treatment and dyeing.
"The most harmful component in traditional dyes is chlorine," said Zellmer. While
organic fabric is generally found in earth tones, more colors of natural dyes
are on the horizon, she said.
Hemp, a durable fiber that requires low pesticide use, is also occasionally
employed in green furniture. Bean Products of Chicago uses hemp upholstery
on chairs, ottomans, couches, and beds.
"Hemp has been around forever, but there are stigmas attached to it, and it is
illegal to grow in the U.S.," said Bean's Isabella Samovsky. "People associate
it with marijuana and burlap. We've come a long way though; the hemp we use looks
nothing like burlap." Hemp fabric is six times stronger than cotton, said Samovsky.
Bean Products uses an air-blasting process to soften the fabric.
Climatex Lifecycle, made by Swiss company Rohner Textil, is fabric made of
pesticide-free wool and organically grown ramie (a natural linenlike fiber).
The material will decompose in the right composting system. Fabric scraps
from the production process are made into felt and used as garden mulch.
The eco-furniture of the future will have "health-giving" attributes, predicted USGBC's Winn. "Instead of off-gassing
toxic fumes, furniture will give off something beneficial such as vitamin
C."
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