Fast furniture or handmade? How the more expensive item might save you in the end

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Fast furniture is all over social media and with trendy pieces at cheap prices it can be hard to resist. But low-quality, mass-produced items are often quickly headed for landfill. The waste recovery industry as well as local furniture makers are urging consumers to consider making more sustainable choices.

Transcript

00:00Tucked away in a converted Apple cool store, Laura McCusker is designing furniture to last hundreds of years.

00:13If you make something these days with all of the technology that we've got and all of the understanding we have,

00:18and you look after it, there's absolutely no reason that it shouldn't be able to last just as long, if not longer.

00:23Ms McCusker adheres to the slow design movement.

00:27Instead of buying stuff that's really quick to access, quick to make, and cheaper, you actually sort of invest in pieces that will last forever.

00:35So buying once, buying well, looking after it, maintaining it, and buying from makers who are local.

00:42It's an ethos which she says is important in the current era of fast furniture,

00:47which, like fast fashion, is mass-produced, cheaper furniture which is normally not made of solid timber.

00:55What we see online is influencing consumer behaviour, especially for younger people,

01:01who, when it comes to buying furniture, look for social media worthy pieces.

01:06They might be thinking, oh, this piece is going to bring me more attention,

01:11or this is going to allow me to engage with my mates on Instagram or TikTok.

01:17This tip in Hobart has seen an increase of dumped fast furniture since 2020.

01:25We end up with a lot more of it, and ultimately a lot of this material does end up in landfill,

01:31because it's much harder to recycle than our traditional old solid wood timber furniture.

01:37Consumers are trying to strike a balance between sustainability and affordability.

01:43As much as they want to be more sustainable, they face all these obstacles, these barriers,

01:49and this is where we possibly see they start to look for these cheaper options.

01:54If you're on a student, you know, your student income, by all means, you've got to do what you've got to do.

01:58But, you know, maybe when you finish with it, pass it on to somebody else, or look after it.

02:04There's lots of options out there, from your op shops and your tip shops, to things like marketplace.

02:11Showing that buying furniture more sustainably doesn't have to blow the budget.

02:17All sorts of options out there.

02:20.

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