What do fashion and furniture have in common?

The fashion industry has been plagued by fast fashion: inexpensive clothing produced rapidly by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trends. These pieces of clothing are worn an average of seven times before being discarded.

This same mentality has spread to the furniture industry.

Fast furniture

Inexpensive pieces of ‘fast furniture’ are mass-produced and not built to last. This production faces many of the same issues as fast fashion: ethical issues such as exploitation of workers, use of toxic chemicals, and overproduction leading to a waste of resources.

These items are usually built from cheap materials, especially particleboard, which makes it more susceptible to damage and can be more challenging to repair—unlike a solid hardwood piece that can be sanded and refinished. Fast furniture manufacturers are more likely to use glue, paint and stain, wood finishes and chemical retardants which contain toxic chemicals. And once these items shows wear and tear, it’s easier and cheaper to buy new than to fix what you already have. These pieces aren’t meant to last a lifetime and the materials are much more difficult to recycle.

Why is this a problem?

Furniture is among the most bulky objects thrown away, and pieces are often dumped illegally. These large items constitute 5% of household waste and are contributing to clogging up landfills. Many of the materials used in furniture do not biodegrade. In addition, the emissions and other resources used to create and transport these items is increased as the rate of buying and dumping these items skyrockets.

How do I know whether furniture is sustainable?

The appeal of fast furniture is undeniable: it is inexpensive and easily accessible. Quality pieces can be costly and can take weeks to arrive, especially post-pandemic. I strongly believe that quality is always better than quantity, and to view these items as investments. You will save both money and resources in the long run by buying well-made furniture that is meant to last. You can keep it forever and pass it on to your children or others to use.

But first, how does one identify fast furniture? Simply touching it can be a good indicator—you can tell when it wouldn’t take much for something to break. The material used is also a good gauge. Inexpensive materials like plastic, plywood, or particleboard are not as sturdy and long-lasting as others quality materials.

Furthermore, the good and the bad news is the price is usually an accurate indicator. Chances are, if you’re only paying $100 for a main centerpiece of a room, such as a sofa, bed or kitchen table, it’s fast furniture and won’t last more than a few years. In addition, these pieces also often require self-assembly.

Sustainably-sourced materials

Choose furniture made from sturdy, strong materials such as solid woods and metals. When shopping for sustainable wood furniture, seek out items that are FSC certified, ensuring the wood came from responsibly-managed forests. Many traditional woods like oak or maple, and even bamboo, are available with this certification. Reclaimed wood is also an excellent eco-friendly material.

SCS Recycled content is a reliable certification for items made with recycled materials.

For upholstered furniture, look for fabrics made from natural fibers instead of synthetic materials like polyester. Furniture made with man-made materials are fossil fuel-based and much more likely to contain harmful chemicals, including VOCs (see below). Buying organic furniture is the best way to avoid exposure to these toxic chemicals. GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) certification is the gold standard you will encounter for organic furniture.

There are also certifications ensuring sustainable and ethical sourcing for other types of materials, including latex, cotton, down, wool, and leather. Below are the most common logos you should look for in sustainably-made furniture.

Avoid VOCs

VOCs, or volatile organic compounds, are a group of harmful chemicals, such as formaldehyde and benzene, which are emitted from many sources found in most households, such as cleaning products, paint, carpet, and, of course, furniture. These chemicals are off-gassed, or airborne released, at the highest concentrations during the first year of an item’s life. That new furniture smell? Off-gassing. This process can continue to off-gas for years, even after that smell is gone. (This is an advantage of buying used furniture). These vapors compromise indoor air quality, which can have adverse health affects on everyone, including pets, and especially the very young, elderly, and those with underlying immune or respiratory issues.

If you are concerned about VOCs or are having symptoms, purchase an air quality monitor, such as this Airthings monitor I recently purchased and highly recommend. My sister and her husband recently remodeled their kitchen, and afterwards were both experiencing significant headaches. They purchased a monitor and discovered their VOCs were much higher than WHO recommendations. They took steps to speed the off-gassing of their new cabinets, the VOC levels decreased, and their symptoms went away.

How do I rid my space of existing VOCs?

• Remove the source, if possible. Place item in a garage, spare bedroom, or outside.
• Increase ventilation to overcome the off-gassing rate. To accomplish this without wasting energy, you can control ventilation based on air quality monitor VOC measurements. Running fans at full power 24/7 is not cost-effective or energy efficient.
• Heat speeds up the off-gassing process. Place items in the sun or use a space heater.
• Filter VOCs out of the air. This can be accomplished with air purifiers or your HVAC system. A method with mixed data is using plants that are capable of absorbing VOCs.

The best way to avoid VOCs is to prevent them from entering your home in the first place. Steer clear of furniture made of:

• Vinyl or PVC
• Particleboard or plywood. Besides the aforementioned downside of lacking durability, these materials are held together with glue containing formaldehyde.
• Avoid any type of fabric treatment, including flame retardants, stain resistance, water repellency, or antimicrobial properties. These are all sources of VOCs, in addition to containing the harmful chemicals Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as “forever chemicals“

Non-toxic furniture certifications

Look for the following third-party certifications that ensure the furniture you are buying is non-toxic.

Where to Buy Sustainable Furniture

While it is true that stronger, quality materials often come with a heftier price tag, you don’t necessarily need to break the bank to get quality pieces.

For those on a budget, or lovers of DIY projects, consider buying used or vintage furniture. This way it is possible to obtain nice, quality pieces for a fraction of the cost. If needed, some minor repairs, a fresh coat of paint or stain, or refurbishing can go a long way into breathing new life into an item.

Where to buy used furniture

• Local thrift shops, antique shops, and garage sales
• Facebook Marketplace
• Your local Buy Nothing or Freecycle group
• Check out Etsy’s reclaimed wood or used furniture.
• IKEA’s Re-shop & Re-use
• Kaiyo, a sustainability-focused online marketplace where you can buy and sell furniture
• Try Chairish for vintage furniture

Rent furniture

Another sustainable, budget-friendly option is to rent furniture. Companies like Fernish and Feather offer stylish, contemporary furniture for rent, complete with a rent-to-own option. This is an especially great choice for people who move frequently. For more businesses, check out The Spruce’s list of best furniture rental companies.

Where to buy affordable sustainable furniture

Etsy

Etsy is another solid choice for sustainable furniture, featuring numerous handmade options. The company was listed among Just Capital’s America’s Top 10 Companies for Environmental Performance in 2022.

Target

Target can be a good place to find reasonably priced sustainable furniture by using their filter “Sustainability Claims & Certifications.” Sometimes this filter can be hard to locate, but I have discovered that it appears on the broader categories, such as ‘bedroom furniture,’ rather than by shopping for ‘beds’ specifically. The filters include certifications such as FSC-certified wood, pieces that contain recycled content, or Greenguard.

Wayfair

Wayfair has made it easier to search for sustainable furniture with their “Shop Sustainably” filter.

IKEA

Furniture from IKEA comes with a big *. But I felt the furniture giant should be included because it made the list of top scorers on the Wood Furniture Scorecard put together by The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) and Sustainable Furnishings Council (SFC). Their rating system scores companies based on responsible wood sourcing policy, practices and performance.

IKEA sits at an interesting intersection between sustainability and the “fast furniture” industry. While the company is known for producing affordable, mass-market furniture, which is generally associated with shorter life spans, leading to higher turnover and waste and contributes to a throwaway culture.

However, the company has made significant efforts to improve its sustainability practices in recent years.

• IKEA has committed to using more sustainable materials. 99.5% of the wood used for IKEA products is FSC-certified or recycled. The company aims for all of its products to be made from 100% renewable or recycled materials by 2030; currently more than 60% of IKEA products are based on renewable materials and more than 10% contain recycled materials.
• Initiatives like Re-shop & Re-use aims to promote a more circular economy by repairing, reselling, or recycling used furniture.
• The company offers shipping of free spare parts to prolong the usefulness of furniture.
• IKEA is committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030 and to reach net zero emissions by 2050, without the use of carbon offsets to meet these goals. Currently 100% of IKEA factories run on renewable energy and aims to have zero emission deliveries by 2025. To achieve this, the company has double its number of EVs each year since 2017.

While IKEA is making strides toward sustainability with its material sourcing, circular economy efforts, and carbon neutrality goals, it still operates within the realm of fast furniture due to its business model. Whether IKEA is sustainable or fast furniture depends on the specific product and how it’s used and cared for.

Sustainable furniture companies

Much to my relief, my longtime favorite furniture stores–Crate & Barrel and Pottery Barn–also ranked among the top scorers of the Wood Furniture Scorecard. Unfortunately, furniture from these and the rest of the companies I have listed are not cheap, but I can attest that they are investments that you will only have to make once.

Crate & Barrel

Crate & Barrel aims to use 50% FSC-certified woods and 60% preferred fibers by 2025. Many of their textiles are composed of GOTS certified organic cotton and OEKO-TEX certified. All the their children’s furniture is Greenguard Gold certified. The company is working toward making their distribution centers more eco-friendly with projects like installing solar panels.

Williams-Sonoma

Williams-Sonoma is the parent company for Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids & Teen, West Elm, Rejuvenation, and their newly-launched sustainability focused store, Green Row. You may be surprised to find out that such a large retailer is among the most sustainable home furniture company out there: Williams-Sonoma has also been listed on Barron’s 100 Most Sustainable Companies in the U.S. for the last seven years–the only home furnishings company to do so.

Some company sustainability highlights include:

• All company factories are Fair Trade certified; products include some handcrafted items
• 50-60% FSC-certified wood and 95% certified responsibly sourced cotton are used
• Products are Greenguard Gold and OEKO-TEX certified
• Some items are made from recycled materials, obtained from diverting about 200 million pounds of plastic bottles from the ocean and landfills.

Avocado

Avocado – Certified B Corp, GOTS & GOLS certified, RWS Standard, Made Safe, Greenguard, FSC certified, Climate Neutral certified, Certified Vegan, 1% for the Planet member

The Citizenry

The Citizenry – GOTS, OEKO-TEX, and FSC certified, ethically sourced wool and leather, Fair Trade international artisan goods

The Joinery

The Joinery – Certified B Corp, FSC-certified wood

Joybird

Joybird – Greenguard Gold certified, One Tree Planted partner some pieces made from reclaimed woods and fabrics made from recycled plastic bottles

Made Trade

Made Trade – Climate Neutral certified, Women Owned; includes FSC-certified hardwood furniture, recycled furniture, artisan-crafted pieces which are eco-friendly, sustainably harvested, and low VOC.

Medley

Medley – FSC, CertiPur, OEKO-TEX, Greenguard, GOTS, GOLS certifications

Sabai

Sabai – Certified B Corp, FSC Certified wood, CERTIPUR-US Certified foam, plastic-free packaging; recycled, upcycled, and natural fabrics; local materials source less than 100 miles from production

Savvy Rest

Savvy Rest – Greenguard certified, GOTS certified, Cradle 2 Cradle Gold certification

VivaTerra

VivaTerra – Woods are FSC certified or reclaimed, uses recycled or reclaimed natural materials

For mattress information and recommendations, click here. Shop for sustainable kid’s furniture here.

Furniture Care

How to dispose of old furniture

Make sure you donate, sell, or give away unwanted furniture in good condition rather than sending it to the landfill.

• Thrift stores
• Non-profits such as Habitat for Humanity ReStore, the IRC, or Big Brothers Big Sisters. Some of these organizations may be able to facilitate old furniture removal.
• Give away through your local Buy Nothing or Freecycle group.
• Sell on an online marketplaces like Facebook Marketplace or online furniture consignment stores like Kaiyo.
• IKEA has a Buyback & Resell program where they will buy back old furniture for in-store credit and resell your used pieces second hand.
• Hire a hauler like Junk King who will come pick up furniture from either from your curb or inside your house. This is a good option for both donatable furniture as well as unusable pieces. Their website states they reuse, repurpose, or recycle 60% of what they haul away. Load Up is another good option.

There are few opportunities to recycle furniture. Mattresses can be recycled in many places, and metal pieces to be recycled at a scrap yard. Other than that, unsalvageable pieces will most likely have to be taken to the landfill, unless you can find a furniture recycler in your area. If you can’t or don’t want to haul furniture to the landfill yourself, check whether your community has a bulk waste collection that will take furniture. If none of these are option, utilize a junk hauler to remove old furniture.

In a perfect circular system, furniture products would be made without virgin materials, be designed to last longer, and be fully reusable or recyclable.