It isn’t only people committed to a green lifestyle who want to buy ecologically sound furniture. There are many ways to furnish a home without offending Mother Nature.
FSC Certified Wood
The Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) certifies that wood was responsibly harvested from sustainable forests that are well looked after and replanted.
Renewable Materials
Not to be confused with recycled materials (see below) renewable materials are those that are replaced in nature in a short time. For example, bamboo is a grass that grows quickly (compared with the tree that may take a human lifetime to reach the stage at which it can be harvested). Bamboo is also a versatile material and easily shaped.
Recycled Materials
Furniture can be made from recycled wood, recycled plastic, recycled metal and a number of other recyclables. The range is probably limited only by the human imagination. Developing technology means that the options for recycled materials in furniture can only increase.
Locally Made Furniture
This probably does not receive as much attention as it should. Buying something made nearby not only keeps local craftspeople and businesses going; it also reduces the cost of transport and the damage to the environment that can be caused by the use of non-renewable fuels to reach its destination.
Used Furniture
Furniture made before the Second World War tended to be extremely durable. Fashions change and there are many now who prefer to have the latest thing, but ignoring fashion enables the purchase of a piece of furniture that may be cheaper simply because it is not currently sought-after but also will last – and will mean that it is not necessary to cut down another tree so that the family in question can have somewhere to eat. It is not even necessary to feel guilty about the acquisition of a fine piece of mahogany that has already been through 100 years and three families and the fine tree it came from was cut down long before society began to worry about the destruction of tropical forests.
