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Old Chair, New Heartbreak
TBT to that time in late December when we drove past this scene: a lovely chair strangely parked in a gas station bay. We pulled over around the corner. I grabbed my phone and walked over. As I move around taking photos, I hear a voice in the background. He says, you like the chair? I respond, breezily, I really do, but I’m just there to take its photo. I realize he’s talking to me from inside the passenger seat in the next stall. The door is open, and they’re watching my spontaneous, weird photo shoot. He says, it’s antique, you should take it; I’ll help you put it in…
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Imperfectly Perfect. Now What?
Despite our conditioning to constantly cycle through things, parting ways with furniture often makes us feel bad. There’s massive guilt associated with dumping furniture, especially when it’s imperfect—you don’t want to give someone something you yourself don’t want, you don’t want to pay to fix something you don’t intend to keep, you can’t donate it, and landfilling it wrecks your conscience. As a result, people tend to store pieces, out of sight, for long periods of time. Eventually, the guilt lessens as the unwanted piece devolves into something closer to junk status. Thus, making the final disposal easier to bear. This emotional labor is an interesting consequence of our linear…
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Is this a Furniture or a Waste Problem?
The solution will reflect our answer. Let’s choose wisely. If we want to perpetuate our obsession with short term corporate profit maximization above all else, then treating imperfect, unwanted furniture as waste makes great sense. The global waste industry captures all of the gains and their stockholders win. Meanwhile, landfill space shrinks, methane emissions increase, and leachate grows. The tyranny of new continues unabashed, and existing top down power structures remain intact. If, however, we want to build just, resilient, and more prosperous local economies, then we would harness these materials, incentivize collection and redistribution, and prioritize local wealth building. We know not all imperfect, unwanted furniture is waste. But,…
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A Crisis Blinded by Normalcy
When I hear the word crisis, images of destruction flood into my mind. And yet, my research that documented the furniture waste crisis in my neighborhood—when I captured over 50,000 pounds of discarded furniture within 2 miles of my home in 15 months—found that 50% of it was seating. Just like this perfectly usable dining chair sitting innocently on the curb. No piles+no flames=no crisis? If only. Though furniture waste is plainly visible, it’s insidious. Discarded furniture and furnishings are so familiar they’ve become just another feature of city life. I believe this normalization is preventing us from seeing the crisis for all that it is: a complex mixture of…
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Unwanted Furniture Can Help Us Build Back Better
Looking back, looking ahead. Reflecting. Exhaling. Hoping. Readying for the job ahead. What does this moment, this election, have to do with this picture? This discarded, plastic office chair that sits outside of a closed down restaurant, below newly built luxury condos in one of the most expensive cities in the country, that’s been ravaged by a housing crisis, Covid, racial and wealth inequality, and diminished economic prospects? Everything. We must build back better. We are part of the solution.
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5 Questions to Ask When You See Discarded Furniture
A furniture waste crisis applies to well-made and fast furniture alike. Hyper-consumption = hyper-disposal. Don’t forget, Americans throw away over 24 billion pounds of furnishings a year. This is highly problematic. Street furniture is where I most interact with furniture waste. All neighborhoods have it– rural, suburban, urban–and seeing it always sparks more questions than answers. Like:🔸 How do we make sense of the insane amount of orphaned street furniture? Is it laziness? Goodwill towards neighbors? An act of defiance? A cry for help? Resistance? 🔸Why are we so conditioned to quickly label it as illegal dumping rather than explore what’s happening and what’s at stake? Who taught us that?…
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The Final Wish of an Old Table
“So let me get this straight, IKEA, the largest producer of disposable furniture, who after seven decades of filling up landfills with their low cost, single use stuff, who helped shift our collective consumption patterns away from reuse and towards fast furniture, and, as we have just 7 years and 77 days to make drastic changes to keep our emissions below the 1.5 degree threshold, according to the Climate Clock, are now offering to buy back their stuff. Super. For them, and their large private company. Then, there’s me. An old, real wooden coffee table who, for every year I live, provides a benefit to the planet, for not needing…
