Relax & Recycle
Stamp out your carbon footprint with green furniture, inside and out
When it comes to inviting people over to enjoy your home, going green used to mean sitting on your lawn. There just weren’t very many pieces of furniture to relax upon without leaving your carbon footprint. But thanks to the greenbacks being made in the growing market of sustainable living, eco-friendly shoppers are finding furniture made of everything from cardboard to recycled plastic milk jugs.
“It is amazing to be able to create a product that can be recycled at the end of its life and continue its lifecycle,” says Chad Yordy, marketing director for Poly-Wood, Syracuse, Ind.
Poly-Wood, which is sold in garden patio shops from Georgia to California, offers casual outdoor furniture created with recycled plastic lumber from milk jugs once destined for landfills. From rockers to chaise lounges, the recycled content varies from 30 percent to 100 percent, says Yordy, using many different sources of HDPE, or high-density polyethylene. An Adirondack chair would be the equivalent of 150 milk jugs, Yordy says.
Unlike wood, which can rot and split under the elements, outdoor furniture made from recycled plastic lumber is durable come rain or shine. And it’s available in a variety of colors, from mahogany to lemon lime.
Other companies, including Loll Designs in Duluth, Minn., makes ottomans, benches, tables and other outdoor furniture from 100-percent recycled post consumer HDPE. Loll Designs furniture is composed of everything from recycled detergent bottles to margarine tubs - and is also 100% recyclable.
If you are feeling creative, consider Bloxes, a Chicago-based company that provides life-sized cardboard building blocks that can be used to build whatever you imagine. Made from 15- to 30-percent post-consumer recycled cardboard, bloxes are best for indoor use.
“They’re sort of freestanding structural objects that are basically life-sized LEGOs,” says Andrew Wilson, Bloxes president.
Of course, if you really want to go green with your furniture - and want to save a little green in these troubled economic times - there’s always the option of recycling your goods through a garage sale.