Cardboard Furniture: Interesting Solution for Sustainability

Recyclable Cardboard Furniture: An Interesting Solution for Sustainability

Posted on Jul 8, 2012 in Green Products by Matthew Speer 2 Comments

An innovative way to embrace the sustainable lifestyle is through the modern designs of recyclable cardboard furniture. If you are like most, you immediately began to doubt the sturdiness and practicality of this concept, though we challenge that you should give this green product a fair shot. For example, one manufacturer claims that their cardboard bed can handle the weight of up to 22 people, now that is an interesting party.

Of course by using the lightweight recycled and recyclable cardboard furniture you can lower your carbon footprint and reduce landfill waste. A practical application for these products surround those on the go, since they reduce moving costs associated to lugging furniture from one place to another. Just think about all the furniture college students’ dump in the trash when the school year ends and they have to clear out of the dorms. In this case, they would simply recycle it.

Does Green Cardboard Furniture Really Work?

Embracing sustainable design concepts, furniture produced from cardboard that can easily be recycled and returned to market scores high on the green scale. While we have not been able to fully explore the product lifecycle, we can expect a reduction in carbon emissions from the simplified shipping of the condensed lightweight cardboard material. We should also point out that traditional furniture is often made from plastics or particle board among other chemically treated materials which contain dangerous toxins that are known to produce harmful fumes. Reduction in pollution and carbon emissions just by sitting at your desk is a win in our books.

The Australian based, Karton manufactures an entire line of cardboard furniture for practically every room in the house. Their website touts that the furniture is delivered to your home flat packed and cleverly folds into your desk, table, bed or similar. They continue to note that Karton’s “system of folds and tabs makes assembly a cinch with no tools or glue required,” which means no missing screws, Allen wrenches or the other headaches that many of us recall from our first apartment.

Is Eco-Friendly Modern Cardboard Furniture for You?

Adoption of green products is often the hardest hurdle they face when trying to go mainstream and considering we likely won’t see cardboard furniture on MTV’s cribs anytime soon, it has some ground to cover. That is where convenience and price comes into play. Grabbing a desk set for the dorm will only cost about $153 from companies like SmartDeco Furniture, this keeps cost down and doesn’t hurt the wallet when considering it may end up in the recycle bin in 8-10 months. Being cautious of spills will help ensure a longer lifespan, it is paper after all.

Honestly, we have not personally seen cardboard furniture in use, but we love the concept. The team here at iSustainableEarth will reach out to some of these companies and see if we can perform a fair review of some of their products, stay tuned for those results in future articles. Until then, let us know your thoughts, would you use cardboard furniture?