Boost your Green Credentials and buy your furniture second, third or even fourth hand! Did you know that you can help offset your carbon footprint by buying old and antique furniture instead of new? Every year the world loses an area of forest land the size of Nepal, most of this logging fuels the new furniture industry. The problem is that wood is rather commonplace, so it's easy to forget.
The UK has a high forestry footprint and we're the world's third largest importer of illegal timber. And yet…… Last year the UK threw out 1.8m tonnes of bulky household items, mostly furniture and white goods.
GREENPEACE REPORT 11TH APRIL 2007: A recent Greenpeace report has found that international logging companies are causing social chaos and wreaking environmental havoc, particularly in the Congo Basin area; "In short, our report shows how, in spite of a moratorium on new logging that has been in place since 2002, over 15 million hectares of rainforest have been granted to the logging industry - that's an area five times the size of Belgium, and much of this is in areas that are vital for protecting biodiversity. A staggering 80% of ancient forests have been destroyed or degraded, and the remaining 20% are under severe threat from a range of factors including illegal and destructive logging."
Invest in the future by recycling the past.