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Furniture Rescue as the System’s Default
Can we *even* imagine a future when our system’s default was furniture RESCUE instead of DISPOSAL? How good would it feel to replace guilt with satisfaction, to know that curbside furniture was heading to its next phase of life, instead of getting buried forever in a greenhouse gas emitting, leachate producing, hole in the ground? Our current system “rescues” recyclables and food waste every day. Hundreds of millions of dollars of infrastructure exists to keep certain materials out of the landfill. This isn’t a matter of complexity, it’s one of political will, data, awareness and urgency. Earth day, week, month, etc. aka every damn day, is an excellent time to…
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Whisking our Worries Away with our Trash
We’re so conditioned. This treatment of resources is encouraged by our profit seeking systems. It’s become normalized behavior to see precious resources packaged into goods, full of embodied energy, carbon, and labor, piled up on the street and not flinch. People may walk by and sniff it out to see if anything is worth saving, but that’s an imperfect solution and things degrade quickly when they’re left on the street, even when set out in perfect condition. This system says materials are more valuable as garbage than keeping them in and moving them through our local economy. Who benefits from this practice? In whose interest is it for us to…
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Call it What it Is
Looks like “Fast Furniture” to me. Fast Fashion is a force that has taken the fashion supply chain and planet by storm. Does anyone see the resemblance? Low quality, high turnover goods and materials, never meant to last long or be held on to, made for pervertedly low costs in unknown working conditions with horrible environmental impacts? I think it’s time to call it what it is.
