When it comes to the world of interior design, sustainable products and recycled furniture are becoming more than just a fad.
The market for environmentally friendly furniture, from bespoke crafted outdoor furniture to the kind of flat pack’s IKEA and its annual global sustainability report, has grown to record levels.
IKEA recently revealed increased growth in global sales for 2017 across its sustainable products range – Sustainable Life at Home. The Swedish furniture company and the world’s largest furniture retailer reported progress on its renewable energy generation program in part of its most recent sustainability update.
sales of IKEA’s Sustainable Life at Home range – energy efficient products which help customers save water, energy, waste and money – hit €1.7bn in the year ending August 31st.
It isn’t just a few wind turbines of roof tops that are helping the environment in the furniture world, furniture made out of recycled materials are becoming more and more mainstream.
Recycled furniture is becoming increasingly popular. You can get Outdoor furniture made from recycled jugs to furniture made from plastic found In Amsterdam’s canals.
Amsterdam, an already green city, is committed to slashing its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 to 90 percent by 2050. The city’s canal network, as beautiful as it is, has what is called a “plastic soup problem.” Plastic Whales – fishing type boats made out of recycled plastic, suck up the plastic refuse which then goes to be into handsomely designed office furniture.
There are an increasing number of startups appearing involved with recycling waste into luxury furniture. A rapidly growing market has caught the eye of the tech world and we are seeing more and more investment into the technology behind recycling and manufacturing furniture.
Berlin based startup company Pentatonic recently started a collaboration with New York studio Snarkitecture to produce a collection of modular furniture named Fractured built entirely from recycled waste, including computer parts, cans and coffee cups.
As the world consumes its limited resources at an alarming rate, the need for more sustainable living has never been so important. Initiatives such as IKEA’s to provide a more sustainable product should be the benchmark for others to follow, but not everyone has the deep pockets and the buffer zone that IKEA has.
What is encouraging is the rise smaller companies providing both sustainable solutions to environmental issues and producing sleek, safe and affordable furniture at the same time. It may be a long time before recycled furniture becomes the norm as far as office and home furniture go, but we are certainly heading in the right direction. Global technology research firm Technavio predicted the U.S. recycled office furniture market will hit $2.68 billion by 2020 and there is every reason that the recycled home furniture market could double that in the same period.