Furniture Wastes and Their Environmental Impacts as Being a Different Problem of Our Time

Abstract

Since people could easily and quickly access the items they used, the use-dispose approach was adopted instead of the repair-use process. An outcome of this consumption madness and curiosity related to vanity has been associated with furniture usage.
 
 Furniture is in good condition but is replaced by the belief that they are not in trend disposed of without considering any ecological and economic issues. This discarded furniture is typically deposited in solid waste landfills with other household waste and decreases those sites' capacity. Furniture waste, described as giant waste volume, is ecologically harmful because of its chemicals they contain and also causes significant economic losses. Although there are many examples in the world where furniture waste is collected, repaired, and reused, very few municipalities in Turkey can collect such waste and include recycling and reusing it. Besides, there is no inventory in Turkey relating to this waste. Furniture waste examples in the world are presented in this study, and damages to the environment are examined. Furniture waste status is determined by the qualitative research observation method for Istanbul, Turkey's largest furniture and urban low-income market, and Kocaeli, which has been identified as having the highest income inequality in the Eastern Marmara region. In these cities, the methods of using furniture waste were investigated. The aim was to draw attention to the possible damage to the environment by calculating the volume of furniture waste. With this work shaped by the descriptive analysis process, it is intended to lead to other academic studies on accompaniment, complete literature research that is insufficient on the issue and increase awareness of the environmental problems of the increasing consumption of furniture in Turkey. The lack of literature on the amount of furniture and waste disposal in Turkey increases the study's importance.