Recycled material is often the sustainable choice. While making use of existing material and recycling means we exploit a smaller proportion of new natural resources, there are also challenges with recycled material in terms of things like chemical content, traceability and economics. Savo explains what we should consider regarding recycled material, and the factors we should take into account.
Today, Swedes use four times more natural resources than what is considered sustainable. This means we need four Earths to provide us with natural resources, and today we’re borrowing these resources from our children and grandchildren. To reduce the amount of natural resources we extract, we need to reuse and recycle significantly more material than we do today.
As a furniture producer, we’re eager to reduce the amount of natural resources we extract, among other ways by making quality furniture that can be renovated and recycled, resulting in long product lifetimes. We also like to use recycled material to the greatest extent possible, but such material may involve considerable challenges. One dilemma that can occur involves being forced to choose between recycled material on one hand, where we cannot guarantee the chemical content, and new material on the other hand, where the chemical content can be guaranteed.
Tender documents often contain tough requirements to verify that certain chemicals are not included, which is indeed good as it shakes out many substances hazardous to the environment and health, but it can also mean that certain recycled materials are rejected. This is because no supplier can guarantee there are no traces of the forbidden chemicals present. This applies to things like certain plastics and plastic granule suppliers. Furniture producers are then faced with the choice of meeting procurement requirements by using virgin plastic, or by prioritising one more use of already-extracted natural resources. Because a large part of the Swedish furniture industry is dependent on meeting tender document requirements, it often results in their following requirements while continuing to look for solutions.
One solution is for plastic granule suppliers to test every batch with the recycled plastic material. However, this is costly, which is one of the reasons recycled plastic is often more expensive than the virgin version. Thus tender documents that do not factor this into their price comparisons are not to the advantage of recycled plastic. Another solution would be to use pre-consumer recycled plastic, which means the plastic was recycled during the manufacturing or delivery process before it reached the consumer. For example, this might be industrial waste that is used again instead of being sent for disposal. The problem is the post-consumer recycled plastic, i.e. plastic that has been out on the market and collected after use. Pre-consumer recycled material does not provide the same environmental gains as post-consumer material, but it is still much better than virgin material. On the other hand, pre-consumer recycled material has an advantage as its traceability is unbroken and producers know exactly what it contains.
Different types of plastic with different characteristics need closed material loops to achieve good recycling, and this presents another challenge when recycling plastics. Mixing different types of plastics therefore makes recycling more difficult. Certain types of plastic such as PET are easy to purchase recycled as there are already closed material loops, for example in the form of fishing nets or PET bottles from deposit-refund schemes.
In contrast to recycled plastic, which is often more expensive than the virgin variety, recycled metal is cheaper than virgin metal. Thus there is a functioning circular process for recycled metal for financial reasons, and all metal that can be recycled uses this process. This means the total amount of recycled material does not increase if the customer demands recycled metal. On the other hand, steel that contains more than 20 percent recycled material can have a negative environmental impact because it requires steel from special scrap smelters in Europe as there are none in the Nordics, and this entails extra haulage for a material that has still been used by someone else.
We should also be aware that recycled material does not automatically mean smart green choices. Wherever possible, it’s better to renovate or reuse a component then to recycle it. For example, it’s better to repaint an aluminium swivel base than to melt it down and cast a new one, as this process requires significantly more energy.
Fibreboard is one of the few wooden products that sometimes actually contains recycled wood. Otherwise, recycled wood is relatively unusual. On the other hand, wood forms part of the biological cycle and is thus a renewable, climate smart material. However, be careful when demanding that furniture contain a certain proportion of recycled material as this tends to prioritise plastic and metal furniture at the expense of wooden furniture. It’s better to demand a certain percentage of recycled or renewable material in furniture.