F-waste Sounds like a Swear Word but...

F-waste is the industry's shorthand for furniture that ends up in landfills.

"36151 Old Dominion Landfill" by bsabarnowl is licensed under CC BY 2.0

According to the EPA f-waste in the US was over 12 million tons in 2018. Only a fraction of that waste was recyled or combusted for energy recovery, leaving over 9.6 million tons going into landfill.

If you're like me, when you read these kind of stats, you think

a) that doesn't sound good but,

b) I've no idea what 9.6 million tons looks like.

So here's a little translation. 9.6 million tons is equivalent to:

61 million sofas

​48 thousand blue whales

​52 Salesforce towers

I can just about envision 52 Salesforce towers (who thought that tower could be so useful!) and that is a ridiculous amount of trash.

A big part of the problem is "fast furniture" - pieces that are made with poor quality materials and priced so low that it's cheaper for people buy a replacment when they inevitably break, rather than refinish or repair them.

I'm sure you can see where I'm going here. We'd all be doing our bit to help if we bought recycled high quality furniture meant to last and didn't change our interiors with every edition of the Restoration Hardware catalog.

So when you support a business like mine, you’re not only getting unique home decor, you're doing your bit for the environment. Well done you!

But this email isn't just about FOUND. I wanted to highlight some of the other companies who are tackling landfill problems in a new way.

​Formr - Thoughtfully designed furniture empowering formerly incarcerated people and reincarnating construction waste.

Formr has several contemporary styled ingenious pieces. My favorite is the VegeTABLE which incoporates a planter in the middle of an end table. You could snack on parsely rather than chips as you watch a movie!

​Fernish - Premium furniture rentals that feel like home.

By offering furniture to rent and then refurbishing and repairing it for the next renter, Fernish is attempting to reduce the amount of furniture that is thrown away.

​​Calico Sol - Modern Fast Furniture Presents a Global Environmental Problem - We’re Working to Solve this Problem by Making a Sustainable Model for the Future of Furniture

Although they're very new and don't have more than one product yet, Calico Sol not only commits to using eco friendly and recyclable materials in their furniture, they are also willing to pick up and recycle their products if you need to get rid of them.

In a future email, I'll explore some ways that we can responsibly dispose of our current furniture if we need to.

Hope you're all having a great summer!

Sarah