Not Everything on the Curb is Fast Furniture

Our society is built on disposability at every level: culturally, economically, politically.

While we champion investments in frictionless consumption—think one click, free overnight delivery—our systems of refurbishment, reuse, and redistribution remain woefully underfunded, difficult, expensive, and stigmatized.

That’s how an old couch that’s made to last, but out of date, receives the same end-of-life treatment as a single-use couch made with glued together wood chips. Our system wasn’t built to tell the difference.

Extractive systems, that prioritize disposal first, that externalize costs, that stigmatize labor and second hand goods, and that equate imperfect pieces with useless, are the challenge. Regenerative, place-based solutions are the opportunity.