The Negative Side of Ikea

I recently ran across this article about how detrimental Ikea is to the environment. (Via The Consumerist.)

One of the arguements the article makes is that people buy cheap Ikea stuff and just toss it out when they get new or better furntiture. I think this is probably particularly prevelant on college campuses; the things I see in the dumpsters around are often Ikea furniture or of a similar quality.

We only have one piece of furniture actually purchased new from Ikea, our coffee table that we have now had for over 3 years. We've inherited a large desk, bookshelf and two desk chairs (we exchanged one dumpster desk chair for another) that we know were certainly from Ikea, although other furniture we've gotten secondhand may be Ikea as well.

With most of our dumpster treasures being part of this Ikea cycle of buying and throwing away, I have hard time hating Ikea the way I can hate corporate megoliths like Wal-Mart, but I can definitely see the harm that having disposable furniture poses for the environment. I still love Ikea and long for their furniture.