For such a little person, it’s amazing how much furniture a baby may use: cradle, bassinette, crib, changing table, rocking chair, bureau, and the like. And nothing brings nature indoors better than beautiful wood furniture.
But the depletion of the world’s forests makes the purchase of wood furniture an important consideration for all consumers. The rapid destruction of our forests radically reduces one of our planet’s most important ways to trap and use carbon dioxide, thus adding to the problem of greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Hmmm. We need to think carefully about our wood purchases. Of course, it’s not just furniture that’s using up all the forests. It’s many things, including paper and paper products.
There are three ways to make buying wood furniture a green choice:
1. Buy recycled
2. Buy sustainable
3. Buy quality
Buying Recycled Furniture
New parents often cherish the thought of using heirloom baby furnishings that have been passed down through the family. Others delight in discovering beautiful vintage wooden baby items at estate sales and antique stores. And still others try to find great deals in used furniture in order to stretch the budget. All of these are green choices. The green movement is in part about salvaging, recycling, and reusing things, thus reducing the environmental impacts related to the extraction, processing, and transportation of virgin materials.
As green as recycling is, however, I do have to add a word of caution here. Before deciding to use an older piece of baby furniture, especially a crib, be certain it meets modern safety standards; otherwise, it’s possible that this green choice will not be safe for the baby. Carefully inspect any used furniture with the following in mind:
- Some older furniture was manufactured before the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission set safety standards. For example, the spaces between slats or spindles on a crib can be no more than two and three-eighths inches (about the width of a soda can), and the corner posts must be less than one-sixteenth inch high to prevent entrapment or injury to the baby.
- Old cribs may have loose, missing, or broken hardware or slats, or may have unsafe cutout designs in the headboard or footboard.
- A crib must have a firm, tight-fitting mattress.
- Lumber and wood products made from salvaged wood may be coated with toxic paint, sealants, or preservatives.
- Much of the baby furniture found in attics and at garage sales is padded with soft vinyl. Best to steer clear.
You may be interested in supporting the efforts of the Rainforest Alliance Smartwood Rediscovered Wood Program, which encourages the use of existing wood and wood products that would otherwise go to landfills. Sources of reclaimed wood include demolition projects for antiquated buildings, dead or fallen trees, unproductive orchard trees, and trees carefully reclaimed from rivers and lakes. The Rediscovered Wood Program certifies that the wood is recovered using environmentally sound procedures.
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