It’s s shame so few things hold enough value to be considered for the second hand market, which is mostly the philipinnes.
Evenso, the cost of landfills makes some things worth recycling.
It’s also telling that Ikea (furniture) is held in such low esteem from a second hand market, that there is no market for it. That highlights to me that Ikea is detrimental to the environment since it means these thjngs end up in the dump.
On a side note, at least that apartment had very poor natural lighting coming in.
I think Ikea is great! It is engineered to last exactly as long as most people want for cheaply made furniture. I think you overestimate the market for second-hand, used furniture in old styles. I can't count the amount of well-made furniture that goes unsold in consignment stores and estate sales. Simply because it is well-made doesn't mean that people desire it.
In addition to being extremely contemporary, which contributes to not fitting into future trends, Ikea is made of cheap synthetic materials with the aid of lots of chemicals.
Classical furniture can last longer can fit in a variety of design languages and in the least the component materials can be recycled. For example well made mid century modern furniture can be in heavy demand. Moreover, antique furniture stores offer good furniture, if at times, at unaffordable prices.
That said, maybe Ikeas product is no more environmentally impactful than traditional furniture.
>In addition to being extremely contemporary, which contributes to not fitting into future trends
We hardly have any such trends anymore. It's the post-modern era, which unlike past design eras can potentially forever (since it's all about having immediate access to styles and information from every other era).
Most of what IKEA sells wouldn't look out of place in a 1930 modernist design shop for example, and still here it is 80+ years later.
Yes, the hassle of storing and moving (or disposing) often exceeds its value. I had a good experience donating my old furniture to a charity that supplies impoverished or recently-homeless people.
What do you mean by “On a side note, at least that apartment had very poor natural lighting coming in?”
Do you mean that “at least one apartment in Japan has poor light” or do you mean “the article/the person’s life/something else was bad but on the other hand it’s good that the apartment had poor light”
> It’s also telling that Ikea (furniture) is held in such low esteem from a second hand market, that there is no market for it.
Huh? I never had problems selling Ikea stuff second-hand. Just last week, I gave away a Lack side table via Ebay Kleinanzeigen (Ebay Classifieds, known as Kijiji internationally). Multiple people were interested in it.
The environmental cost of Ikea furniture is probably mostly the transports. It's mostly wood, so as long as it ends up where it should (i.e. in the wood bin, not a landfill) it should be ok.
Evenso, the cost of landfills makes some things worth recycling.
It’s also telling that Ikea (furniture) is held in such low esteem from a second hand market, that there is no market for it. That highlights to me that Ikea is detrimental to the environment since it means these thjngs end up in the dump.
On a side note, at least that apartment had very poor natural lighting coming in.