Sustainable Furnishing Means Furnishing to Last

The best available data comes from the US: for 2018, the environmental agency EPA reports 12.1 million tonnes of furniture and furnishings in municipal waste – 4.1 percent of the total waste volume. 80.1 percent of it was landfilled, 19.5 percent incinerated, and 0.3 percent recycled. For Europe, no official furniture waste statistics exist; a study commissioned by environmental associations estimates around 10 million tonnes per year, mostly landfilled or incinerated. Switzerland, too, does not track furniture as a separate waste category – only the overall figures are documented here (2024: around 6 million tonnes of municipal waste, 52 percent recycling rate); old furniture typically goes into incineration as bulky waste. Where numbers are missing, we do not claim any.

On the regulatory side, things are moving: in April 2025, the EU included furniture and mattresses in the first working plan for the new Ecodesign Regulation (ESPR) – as priority product groups for which binding requirements on durability, repairability and recyclability are to be developed by 2030. These are still plans, not applicable regulations – but the direction is set, and it matches what high-quality manufacturers do anyway: build furniture that endures.

From the waste figures follows the simplest sustainability rule in furnishing: the most sustainable piece of furniture is the one that never has to be replaced. Three properties extend the length of use – we flag them as trade practice, whose logic also stands behind the EU plans: repairable construction (detachable joints, available spare parts), replaceable wear parts (covers, toppers, upholstery cores – with our beds, for instance, components can be renewed over their lifetime) and timeless design that survives changes in style. Then there is the second life: well-preserved furniture belongs sold, given away or taken to the second-hand store – not in the dumpster.