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 to extract more natural resources to replace me, and for not having to keep me buried in a methane emitting, leachate leaking landfill. How many IKEA coffee tables have lived and died since I’ve been hard at work? Thousands? Millions?

I’m a relic, an object that was made to last generations, can easily be remade locally into a hundred other things, should provide a skilled job that keeps dollars in my community, and has the power to redefine what regenerative means and for whom. Instead, I’m just seen as a nemesis, used and outdated. My maker and my years of service get no praise.

Why, in our hyper- corporate culture, should I expect loving fan fare, or educational marketing campaigns about why extending my life matters? Consumers have received decades of conditioning about what has value: hint, it’s always new, even if it’s flimsy as hell and only made to last 2 weeks. It’s superior. And don’t you forget it.

What corporation wants to undo all of that training now? None of them, because I’m the enemy to new. In our system, it’s better if I didn’t exist at all. That’s so heavy. Plus, IKEA didn’t do this one second before they had to, I think it’s safe to say their social license to operate is on the line. The world is exploding in catastrophes. There is no longer a choice but to respond. I’m old. I get it. I’m not even bitter, I’m resigned. But it matters that I speak my truth before my time is up.

Don’t overlook ancient wisdom for shiny sustainability promises. You’ll get fooled every time.”