Antique and Vintage Furniture - Recycled, Eco-Friendly and Green
Mattress Recycling
Experiencing antique and vintage products have a very positive impact on the environment. Recycling treasures from the past for our lifestyle today doesn't just save landfill space but additionally has many other positive "green" effects on the planet.
Mattress Pickup
Recycling vintage furniture saves trees, and breathes new life into beautiful old wood. Most of the finest old growth hardwood has already been cut down, and made into furniture years ago. Refurbishing these irreplaceable pieces substitutes for additional decimating of more prime mature hardwood trees in endangered forests.
Most new furniture contains particle board. The powerful synthetic glues that bind the sawdust into man-made "wood" release formaldehyde as well as other chemical vapors in to the air we breathe in our homes and offices for many years.
Recent advances in varnish stripping chemicals have triggered finish removal methods which can be vastly safer and gentler. Many antiques are refinished using water based finishes, much better for that environment than traditional petroleum based lacquers and solvents, many consideration to contain carcinogens. This also makes for healthier working conditions for refinishers.
"Nothing is indeed dangerous as being too modern. You are apt to grow old-fashioned quite suddenly." noted Oscar Wilde. As well as the charm and beauty of old furniture, antiques tend to be much less expensive than new. Another benefit is the positive feeling that accompanies enhancing the environment. The same satisfaction which comes from rehabbing old buildings includes adapting an antique piece to today's lifestyle.
"The first half our lives is ruined by our parents, and the second half by our youngsters," said Clarence Darrow. Nevertheless, this is a good feeling to understand that your antique furniture can someday be restored and reused by generations to come. It is a pleasure to find out historic things serve us inside our daily lives, reflecting the changing times and lives of their previous owners, and realizing that they will survive to brighten the lives of other people in the future. This is the real specification of heirlooms, and the recycling aspect is becoming critical to preserve life we all know it on our fragile earth.
Discussion and controversy over how to handle pollution and our planets atmosphere will continue, but enjoying and experiencing antiques is a simple and positive ecological decision. As Friedrich Engels said, "An ounce of action will be worth a ton of theory."