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Tell Me More
Small white sticker reads:Night & Day FurnitureVancouver, WA 98686Model # Cinnamon Futon Bunk BedMonth / Year of Mfg. November 2005Do not remove this label Fascinating and so informative. While they’re at it, could they print another sticker to address their wood sourcing practices, worker conditions, the toxicity of the finishes, and perhaps their end of life plan?
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Too Nice to be Landfilled, Too Imperfect to be Donated
Example #334,226,788. The size of the opportunity is as big as the challenge, if we’re willing to think outside of the entrenched industrial waste complex. Can developing local systems of furniture reclamation, rehabilitation, and redistribution create a positive feedback loop for our community rather than generate a one time source of profit for a waste hauler? Who are these systems built to serve? What power structures perpetuate the status quo? What assumptions do we rely upon to not question it?
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“Don’t Want it? Neither Do We.”
The ad on this bus reads, “Don’t want it? Neither do we.” The image prominently features a faded, slouchy red couch. The couch sits atop a trash heap that looks as if it was scooped straight out of the landfill. The pile includes rocks, dirt, plastic containers, and other bits of detritus. Though worn, this couch has all of its parts and is not ripped, broken, or damaged beyond repair. The fine print on the ad encourages people to contact their service provider to schedule a bulky waste pickup. Another way to say: to avoid it ending up on the street, we’ll come and dump it in the landfill for…
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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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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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Secondhand Supply Convoy
Silly drawers sitting at a crosswalk. I can think of funny narratives about bad directions or objects on an exciting escapade but in my heart I think the truth is much more sobering. Oakland has over 4,000 homeless people on its streets, a surge of 47% in just two years, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. I believe these drawers are a tiny glimpse into a supply convoy of materials used to construct repurposed up-cycled shelters. Sounds Pinterest worthy, doesn’t it? Repurposed. Up-cycled materials. Tiny homes. But instead, it describes a devastating reality of homeless encampments. People are constructing temporary homes out of what is plentiful in their surrounding environment…
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Wish-cycling’s True Costs
Wish-cycling is the act of putting something you think/hope is recyclable into a recycling bin. Experts recommend that if you don’t know whether it’s actually recyclable you should assume it’s not because mistaken optimism contaminates the batch and often renders whole loads of recycling unsalvageable. According to Waste Management, their contamination rate for curbside recycling is about 25%. 1 in 4 items do not belong in that recycling bin, or as their website says, “That means that 500 pounds of every 2,000 pounds that we collect at the curb is ultimately discarded as non-recyclable.” Contamination increases costs, reduces efficiencies and sends even more materials to the landfill. I feel like…
