F-waste : the forgotten waste stream
Jackdaw’s solution is as radical as it is straightforward; we need to reduce the amount of furniture that’s thrown away in the first place.
As a commercial interiors design studio, Jackdaw is looking to solve an urgent environmental issue that threatens the integrity of our industry.
F- waste is ‘the forgotten waste stream’. In the ‘war on waste’ furniture manufacturing never got the call-up. In the UK alone 22 million pieces of furniture are thrown away each year, with the bulk ending up in landfill. A paltry 0.3% is recycled, why? Because there is no business case for doing more. A sofa can contain dozens of different materials and chemicals; taking items like this apart is time-consuming and labour-intensive. The environmental case, though, is beyond question. It takes 1000 times more carbon to produce a new piece of furniture compared to refurbishing an existing one.
Part of the solution to the problem of F-Waste is to design furniture for better recycling. Yet only companies like IKEA, with its planetary scale and reach and integration from design to delivery, can hope to implement this. Meanwhile the more affluent parts of the planet are groaning under the literal weight of legacy furniture while continuing to buy more.
Jackdaw’s solution is as radical as it is straightforward; we need to reduce the amount of furniture that’s thrown away in the first place.
Jackdaw has historically specified classic vintage furniture due to our love of design rather than a drive for sustainability. With our focus now firmly on the problem of F-Waste, our mindset has shifted to proactively design interiors around these previously owned pieces with the intention to reduce to an absolute minimum the amount of new furniture purchased for any project.
There is the potential for commercial clients to perceive that reused, repaired or vintage furniture means compromising on style and quality. But with Jackdaw’s design and expertise we can restore and revive furniture, creating spaces that re-animate what would previously have been discarded.
We are looking to our clients to help lead the way in changing attitudes as this is not just a sustainability issue, it’s also about workplace culture and norms.
To get to net zero we don’t have to sacrifice inspiring workspaces. Working together with a design-led approach to tackle F-waste is one not-so-small way to achieve this important goal.
