One thing that most people care about is how the cushions feel to them – do you like to sink down into the cushions or you like a denser, more supportive cushion? Either way, the cushions are important. Before plastics, our grandparents filled cushions with feathers, horsehair, wool or cotton batting – even straw …
California has approved a new flammability standard for residential furniture that is receiving widespread praise among environmentalists. But we’d like you to examine, with us, some details about the new standard that you’ll need to know to keep you and your family safe from these extremely toxic chemicals. California is the only state in the …
Buying a sofa is a big committment: it dominates the room, costs a lot, and should be presentable for at least 10 years. So let’s say that you’ve cruised the stores, sat in the sofas, lifted them, pushed and probed – and decided on a version that looks and feels right. And you’ve made sure that …
So we have produced the frame and put in the suspension system. Next in line are the cushions – something soft to sit on. In an upholstered piece of furniture, the cushions need a filler of some kind. Before plastics, our grandparents used feathers, horsehair or wool or cotton batting. But with the advent of …
A current theme in the blogosphere is that organic sofas are expensive, so let’s see what that could mean. We often hear that organic stuff costs more than conventional stuff, and that only the rich can take advantage of the benefits of organic products. That is true of food prices – organic food typically costs …
In my last post I explained that polyurethane foam (polyfoam) has a plethora of problems associated with it: The chemicals used to manufacture the foam have been formally identified as carcinogens; and the flame retardant chemicals added to almost all foams increase the chemical toxicity. These chemicals evaporate (VOCs) and pollute our indoor air and …
In an upholstered piece of furniture, the cushions need a filler of some kind. Before plastics, our grandparents used feathers, horsehair or wool or cotton batting. But with the advent of plastics, our lives changed. You will now commonly see polyurethane foam, synthetic or natural latex rubber and the new, highly touted soy based foam. …
In light of the recent Chicago Tribune series, “Playing with Fire” about the deceptive campaigns waged by manufacturers of flame retardants, it seems that with each call we get, we end up talking about flame retardants. We think that’s skewed, because flame retardants, though certainly something we wouldn’t want to live with, are not the only monsters in the …
From last week’s blog post, we discussed how bio based plastics do indeed save energy during the production of the polymers, and produce fewer greenhouse gasses during the process. Yet right off the bat, it could be argued that carbon footprints may be an irrelevant measurement, because it has been established that plants grow more …
The first plastic garbage bag was invented by Harry Waslyk in 1950. 1950! Mr. Waslyk could not have predicted how much havoc his plastic child would wreck in a mere 62 years.[1] We’ve all seen the pictures of birds stomachs filled with plastic detritus and read about the Great Pacific Gyre, but I just read …
OEcotextiles 