Welcome to the New Year! Around this time last year, we unveiled our new recycling program here on the WFMO blog. If you recall, in our post titled “Going Green: Environmental Sustainability & Becoming a Green Business”, we gave readers a brief glimpse into our plan to reduce waste and be more environmentally responsible. Well, we’ve got more to share! Watch the video below to tour our environmentally friendly furniture operations, and read on to hear about our progress toward becoming North Georgia’s most ethical furniture company.
What Does It Mean To Be an Environmentally Friendly Furniture Store?
We’re not exactly the biggest furniture company around. But we realized that we were still producing lots of recyclable waste. Far too much to just haul it to the dump and shrug our shoulders. We wanted to be an environmentally friendly furniture company. So we thought long and hard about this question.
Where in our operation do we generate unnecessary waste? Where are our blind spots? Most importantly, how do we address these things in a way that benefits our customers, our community and our planet?
As you’ll hear Brian say below, “Y’all are going to be amazed how much our little company is doing to impact the environment for the better”. We’re proud of what we’re doing and we hope you are too! Watch the tour below as Brian, Dale and Rob walk you through the ways we make a difference every day.
How Do We Responsibly Dispose of Furniture, Cardboard, Plastic and Styrofoam™?
Nearly every piece of furniture you see at Woodstock Furniture & Mattress Outlet is shipped from the manufacturer in some combination of cardboard, plastic, or polystyrene (commonly known as Styrofoam™) packaging. As a result, these things make up most of our waste. Each of the machines below make a world of difference when it comes to recycling these materials.
Also keep in mind that all of the equipment we use for recycling is proudly made here in the USA. Not only does this make our operation more efficient, but we can support other American businesses too!
Horizontal Baler (Cardboard)
First up is our horizontal baler. This magnificent piece of machinery allows us to crush our cardboard into giant 1-ton bricks. The machine ties these bales with wire, and from there it can be loaded straight into a truck via forklift. As a bonus, our recycling partner for cardboard is both local and a producer of recycled paper products. This minimizes the amount of fuel wasted since they process all that cardboard and produce their own recycled paper products right here in Georgia.
Exactly how much cardboard do we go through? Well, over the last 14 months we recycled a whopping 306 tons! That's enough recycled cardboard to save over 6,100 trees, 14,000 gallons of gasoline, 2.1 million gallons of water, and over 1.2 million kilowatt hours of electricity - enough to power 102 typical American homes for a whole year! And that's just the cardboard.
Can you imagine if all that cardboard were just decomposing in a dump somewhere?
Vertical Baler (Plastic)
Next is our vertical baler. Similar to the machine above, the vertical baler crushes plastic (or anything else) into dense cubes for easier transport. Many items like mattresses are shipped in clear plastic bags and we use this baler to compress them into bales for recycling. In the same 14 month period, we have recycled over 3.75 tons of clear plastic!
Foam Densifier (Polystyrene)
Our foam densifier is needed because so much of our furniture comes from the manufacturer packaged in Styrofoam™ (aka polystyrene). How does a foam densifier work, exactly? We’re glad you asked!
This piece of equipment melts the polystyrene down and condenses it into a heavy ball, increasing the foam’s density by a ratio of 90:1. That means that the densified foam is approximately 90 times (or 9000%) more dense than a piece of normal Styrofoam of the same size. In other words, it takes up much less space and allows for more efficient transport because you can fit much more on a truck.
Additionally, melting down the polystyrene also prepares the foam for its next life as a recycled product. We are then able to sell this densified foam to a 3rd party recycler. Most importantly however, this machine helps keep literal tons of polystyrene out of the landfill!
Auger (aka “The Beast”)
Lastly, we come to our auger, affectionately named “The Beast”. This device mulches up waste products, sofas, damaged items, etc. and then dumps them into a large trailer. The benefits of this machine are two-fold.
First, breaking up bulky items allows us to fit more into a single truck. Way more, in fact. At a ratio of 60:1, we are able to save at least 2 or 3 truck loads to the landfill every single week. So even when we have to throw away non-recyclables, we’re still doing it in a way that minimizes waste in the forms of fuel and emissions. Secondly, breaking up these items before they even reach the landfill aids in their decomposition. Pretty cool, huh?
So What Does All This Mean for Our Customers?
In other words, how do customers like you benefit from our commitment to be an environmentally friendly furniture company? Our decision to be an ethical furniture seller certainly allows environmentally-conscious customers to shop with a clear conscience.
We know that if we don’t run an efficient organization, that our customers are not willing to pay for our waste. They don’t want to pay extra because we run an inefficient company. – Brian Aaron
However, these same green business principles also allow us to be more efficient as a company. And that allows us to save money, keep our overhead costs low, and ultimately pass those cost savings on to you!
Woodstock Furniture & Mattress Outlet: North Georgia’s Ethical Furniture Company
At Woodstock Furniture & Mattress Outlet, recycling and responsibility are a key part of who we are. Are you as passionate as we are about keeping our communities clean for generations to come? Is it important to you to buy your furniture from an environmentally friendly furniture store? If so, pay us a visit online or at any of our Woodstock Furniture & Mattress Outlet and Woodstock Mattress Outlet locations. Lastly, are you wondering about how you can help? Don’t forget these six easy hacks to go green and save money yourself this year!
Unfortunately, we were a bit light on the blog articles in 2020. But it’s a new year and we’re going to be back this year in a huge way! Stick around for tons of helpful new articles about furniture and décor as well as answers to your most pressing furniture industry questions.
