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OKWe are often asked whether our cardboard furniture is really more sustainable than conventional furniture. The answer couldn’t be simpler: Yes, it is!
How and why? We explain it to you.
Furniture is inherently very material-intensive. They are produced in complex production lines, and due to their size and volume, shipping is not only emission-heavy but also expensive. Many customers still expect a low selling price. For many furniture manufacturers, the solution lies in outsourcing production to low-wage countries, where cheap composite materials are often processed under poor working conditions. These often contain a variety of chemical substances that are neither good for the environment nor for humans. A quick Google search for "furniture" and "toxins" reveals quite a bit.
Instead of sustainability, the focus here is on cheap production and the appearance of the furniture. RIAB furniture can do both!
We love recycling because it reduces the consumption of new resources. The material of our choice – corrugated cardboard – is made up of 54% to 80% recycled paper fibers. Of course, we would prefer an even higher recycling rate, but that would negatively impact the stability of our furniture. However, to still protect the environment, the fresh fiber content comes from sustainable forestry. This results in 100% recyclable furniture that can easily be disposed of via the paper recycling bin and reintroduced into the material cycle. This, however, will not happen quickly because thanks to the high quality of the corrugated cardboard, our furniture is extremely durable and long-lasting. If you want to know more, we recommend our magazine article on the topic of corrugated cardboard.
By the way: All cardboard scraps that occur as production waste are recycled as part of our zero-waste production.
Solvents, plasticizers, and other chemicals that burden both the environment and your health will be in vain in our cardboard furniture.
In addition to the paper fibers, we only use a vegan starch glue made from corn starch to bond the paper sheets. The colors used to finish the corrugated cardboard are water-based, solvent-free, and also harmless.
Sustainability for us means, in addition to ecological aspects, also transparent and fair production. That's why we manufacture our furniture entirely in Germany and under fair working conditions.
Reducing CO2 emissions is essential for climate-friendly production. The entire life cycle of a product, from raw material extraction to disposal, is taken into account in the environmental balance of a product.
The high recycling content, recyclability, and very low weight of our furniture, which is particularly noticeable on transport routes, are factors that positively impact CO2 emissions and thus environmental impact.
Thanks to a scientific study, we now know exactly!
As part of her master’s thesis* in the Eco Design program at the University of Applied Sciences Wiener Neustadt, student Chiara Fahrthofer examined the environmental impact of our Bed 2.0 and compared it to that of a conventional bed.
The result:
The Bett 2.0 produces 280 times less CO2 emissions, uses 8,000 times less energy, and even the transport is 4 times more climate-friendly than that of a conventional bed.
*Chiara Fahrthofer, "Comparison of the two Life Cycle Assessments of a conventional produced bed and 'Bett 2.0' by ROOM IN A BOX GmbH & Co. KG regarding to their environmental impact within defined impact categories.", Master’s program "Eco Design", University of Applied Sciences Wiener Neustadt, Wieselburg campus, supervisor: Gerald Götz
