Earlywood: Death to Disposable Furniture

Publisher’s note: Good morning and welcome to Earlywood, a free weekly excerpt from one of the thousands of pieces I’ve written since 1996. Sometimes, it’s from a magazine article. Or a book. Or (in this case) a blog post published in 2018. Each entry has been updated or annotated with some modern context or point of view. Enjoy!

My kids inspecting piles of discarded furniture in 2018.

In many ways, the Europeans are ahead of us in the U.S. (like it or not). Their recycling programs far outpace the ones in the Midwest. Public transport is worlds better. Even the basic coffee is better than our basic Folgers. They are even ahead of us in switching over to flatpack furniture. And this is a dystopian future.

In 2018, while in Germany and Austria, I paid close attention to the waste that was awaiting pickup in the big cities (such as Munich) and small towns. The amount of disposable furniture – a lot of it from IKEA – was shocking. Piles of it that stretch for 10' or more on the sidewalk. An…