Is Biodegradable Furniture The Answer?

Imagine buying a couch that in a years time completely disappears? Montauk, a furniture manufacturer, has designed a couch that completely decomposes. This is just one example of a biodegrabable product. There are many more out there. For example, Looolo cushions (pic below) will biodegrade in one year, should you choose to throw them in your composter once you’re done with them. This idea, that an object be 100% biodegradable, is a noble attribute but how practical is it really?

We live in a throw-away society. The very same products that 50 years ago were bought for their long-lasting qualities are now objects of fashion and ultimately destined for the landfill where even the organic matter cannot decompose due to a lack of oxygen.

Bill Brown from the University of Chicago, who is best known for his work on ‘thing theory’, explains how the value of a piece of furniture you come in contact with often, like a dining room table or a sofa, draws much of its worth from that contact: the longer we keep it around, the more psychologically valuable it becomes. “We use the ‘object world’ to stabilize human life,” he said. “Hannah Arendt said that sitting at the same table grants man his sameness, which is to say his identity.” To Mr. Brown the idea of degradable home goods suggests an identity crisis and I think I can relate to this. If my bed were to decompose I do not think I would feel nearly as safe sleeping in it night after night. If what I built my physical home around is going to just decompose I do not think I would feel very secure.

So how do you satisfy your needs, the need to keep-up-with-the-jones and at the same time not kill the world. One idea is to make objects more valuable. This is usually by expensive materials and craftsmanship. To make a product that is meant to last and be passed on. To move towards traditional attributes of quality as opposed to fashion and convenience. For example, we don’t buy disposable wedding rings so why disposable crockery?

I think this idea, the one of value, makes more sense than the idea of making something that will fall apart and return to the earth. It would feel a bit like watching your money just go ‘phoof’. So, in conclusion, I pledge to buy only with the intention that the object last and be useful for many years and possibly even developing a sense of heirloom rather than saying “Well, it will just have to will do for now and if I don’t like it I can always throw it away and buy another one next year.” I say “No more!”