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.

Typical Dumpsters After the Kids Move Out

We finally figured out how to get pictures off of our new phones and I ran across this one that the Jar had taken of some dumpsters around campus right after graduation.

This is a milder version of what the trash situation can be like. As you can tell from the picture though (I hope) there are at least two chairs and a bookshelf being thrown away.

The Jar and the Van Don't Buy Rugs: Part I

As I mentioned previously, we acquired a few rugs when we moved into our new apartment. Our old apartment was completely carpeted; our new one is completely not.

Here are pictures of the two bigger rugs we got that are now in our bedrooms. They were both clean and dry when we found them in our complex, just in need of a little vacuuming. We prefer the blue and brown stripped rug, but the green rug is nice too. Up next: hallway rug and under the desk rug.

Garbage Van Family Visit

Last weekend the Garbage Van's parents came to town and did a little dumpster shopping of their own!

Garbage Mom made off with this beauty of a breakfast-in-bed tray which she believes will suit her crafting needs greatly.




Garbage Mom also scored a nice mirror but ran off with it before I could photograph. She tipped us off to a nice rug as well, which I will post about next time in my new series: "Garbage Van and Garbage Man Don't Pay for Rugs."

For now, enjoy these pictures of puppies on our second (actually third) hand couch.

The Newest Chair in our Family

Dear Readers,

It has been quite some time since I've posted to the GarbageVan (luckily, my garbage man, the Jar was kind enough to throw in a few posts last year).

Well folks, garbage season is upon us. Today is Dean's Date at Princeton, which marks the beginning of a festive garbage season. In order to commemorate the occasion, I've decided to post with a picture of our most recent chair acquisition.



This beauty (our first "comfy" chair) was sitting outside of our apartment building, shielded from the rain, and bearing a "free" sign. The Jar and I quickly loaded it into the elevator, where the chair quickly gave up its one and only possession, a copy of a children's book onto the elevator floor. Unfortunately for us, neither had a free hand to grab the book or a camera to document. Oh well. You may all feast your eyes on our awesome chair now. Expect more garbage van posts as the summer progresses.

Post Script

In my previous post I made it sound like vinyl upholstery is a good thing. I'd like to make it clear that this does not reflect the views of anybody at Garbage Van.

Just say no to cheap vinyl upholstery.

Love,
The Jar

Garbage Chairs

All rise.

Ok, you can be seated.

Here is the first (at last) true Garbage Van post! This is a chair we picked up over a year ago from the dumpster by our building.It may be difficult to tell from the lackluster photograph, but the upholstery is actually vinyl. I decided to post this first because it is actually something we no longer have.

We had it as the only non-bed place to sit in our bedroom for many months, and eventually realized that we only used it as a temporary holder for dirty-ish clothes that weren't ready for the dirty-laundry basket. (Do other people do this?)

So after many months of taking care of this old friend we returned him (her?) to where we found her(him?). The Garbage-fairies took him to his next home within a few hours.

As far as I can recall, this is currently the only item that we have relinquished.
With love,
the Jar