Making Cheap Furniture Last Longer
PENCINTA ALAM JULY 2016 GREEN LIVING COLUMN MAKING CHEAP FURNITURE LAST LONGER By Wong Ee Lynn < wongeelynn@yahoo.com / gl.mnselangor@yahoo.com > We all know that inexpensive furniture has a high environmental cost. Most affordable furniture is made with particleboard, medium density fibreboard (MDF) or laminate wood. Pros of cheap furniture: · Mostly made using sawdust and lumber scraps, and thus reduces waste. Cons of particleboard and MDF: · One of the components of particleboard is formaldehye, which is considered a "probable human carcinogen" by the Environmental Protection Agency. Inexpensive furniture is thought to emit higher levels of formaldehyde because it's cheaper to manufacture particleboard using glues that are higher in formaldehyde versus low-formaldehyde options. · It also takes more energy t...