Fossil fuel-based polyurethane foam has been a agency favourite in furnishings manufacturing for over half a century. Jane Englefield investigates the results of this dependable however unsustainable materials.
Polyurethane foam is created by mixing chemical substances derived from crude oil with particular blowing brokers to supply a versatile plastic with a mobile construction that has the potential to be tender, laborious, and every little thing in between.
Related to consolation, sturdiness and affordability for each producer and client, the versatile materials has dominated the tender furnishings business for the reason that late 1950s, after Danish modernist designer Arne Jacobsen swapped conventional wooden and metal for foam to sculpt the wraparound chair distinct from its iconic egg. seat.
Foam is a 'important downside'
“Our furnishings design has been pushed, virtually from that second on, on this growth of moldable kind, what you would possibly name natural – the place foam works very well,” stated Tom Lloyd, co-founder of the commercial design studio in London, Pearson Lloyd. .
“Relating to shaping a consolation floor, polyurethane foam is absolutely the grasp of it,” he added. “You possibly can inject issues right into a mildew and it comes out with one thing snug.”
Materials manufacturing is growing. Final yr, round 1.38 million tonnes of versatile polyurethane foam had been produced in Europe, a rise of 1.eight% in comparison with 2022. However regardless of its reliability, the fabric raises severe questions on sustainability and public well being.
Foam is a “important environmental and security challenge,” in line with Celine Sandberg, founding father of all-female Norwegian biofoam producer Agoprene.
“Polyurethane is the product of two petrochemicals, derived as byproducts of the oil business, which makes it extraordinarily inexpensive, however extraordinarily polluting,” she stated.
One of many important issues with polyurethane foam is that, though it’s low cost to supply, it’s costly and energy-intensive to recycle.
As a result of the fabric is a thermosetting polymer, it can’t be melted and reshaped like different plastics.
In distinction, polyurethane foam can presently solely be recycled whether it is floor right into a fantastic powder and blended with extra virgin or chemically decomposed materials.
“You possibly can't soften it,” Lloyd stated. “It's simply burning.”
In keeping with Sandberg, world manufacturing of petroleum-based furnishings foam emits 105 million tonnes of carbon dioxide yearly, with lower than 10% of furnishings recycled within the European Union.
“To place issues into perspective, yearly 40 million mattresses – the equal of 904 instances the peak of Mount Everest – attain the tip of their lives,” she added.
The fabric is “very dangerous on your well being”
Polyurethane foam can be a public well being concern. Being a extremely flammable materials, it ignites simply at temperatures as much as 250 levels Celsius.
This ends in “harmful ranges of warmth and poisonous fumes” which can be launched into the setting when it burns, Sandberg stated.
In consequence, many merchandise utilizing polyurethane foam primarily based upholstery are chemical hearth resistant, with the UK making this a authorized requirement within the late 1980s.
“There have been a whole lot of tales of homes burning down as a result of somebody dropped a cigarette on the sofa,” Lloyd stated.
“However it seems that flame retardant is a fairly severe carcinogen,” he continued. “The present view is definitely that the harm to the retardant is extra severe than the harm to the potential hearth.”
“First you’ve gotten the problem of the froth itself – the way it's made after which recycled – after which you’ve gotten the discharge of flame retardants from the froth, which analysis suggests could be very dangerous on your well being,” agreed Sheridan Coakley, founding father of the British model of SCP furnishings.
And there are much more day-to-day implications.
“If the froth isn't stored in tip-top form — in different phrases, it's the previous, crumbling foam that you simply see in classic sofas and chairs — mud is fairly dangerous,” defined Sam Hecht, co- founding father of London. Industrial Set up studio.
“So even in case you had been to miss the fossil gas facet, it's not a wholesome materials to have in your house or in your waste streams.”
There’s a rising need amongst designers to search out options – though this isn’t with out obstacles.
The present 'advantages' of froth are its light-weight high quality, efficiency and manufacturing value, which is why I believe a whole lot of industries proceed to make use of it,” stated Copenhagen-based Pure Materials Studio founder Bonnie Hvillum, who just lately created a whole experimental home. from bioplastic.
“It's tough to compete with that as a result of sustainable supplies are usually 30 to 100 % dearer than linear supplies,” she added.
“It's the identical comparability with meals. In order for you high quality, natural greens and meat, it will possibly typically value double the value of conventionally grown produce.”
Agoprene is among the many present choices of options to oil-based foam. The biodegradable materials is constructed from renewable seaweed biomass blended with different bio-based substances, that are processed into inherently flame retardant foams of assorted densities. Sandberg and her crew use uncooked supplies derived from waste streams to restrict prices.
The fabric is produced in sheets slightly than giant blocks, or solid into particular shapes, and could be tailor-made to have minimal air pockets to make sure a dense seat that doesn't simply deflate over time, the designer stated.
Pearson Lloyd beforehand collaborated with British model Modus to create a set of foam-free furnishings that was upholstered with coconut fibers sure along with latex – two pure options to polyurethane.
“We restored the consolation floor by going again 100 years to conventional manufacturing strategies,” defined Lloyd.
“I believe we obtained a bit of lazy,” he continued. “I’ve by no means seen sustained value must be a barrier to sustainability. I believe it's a straightforward method out.”
The SCP upholstery went polyurethane foam-free – a challenge Coakley stated took over a decade to finish. Consequently, the model makes use of supplies akin to latex, feathers and recycled wool as different fillings for its furnishings.
“Our perspective is that one of the best ways to mitigate the polyurethane foam downside is to take away it from the availability chain completely,” defined Coakley.
Hvillum additionally cited quite a lot of biomaterials as promising options — from tasks that use the expansion of fungi and micro organism to the biopolymers for which her studio has grow to be identified.
“For these options, it’s important that they get help from bigger corporations, as a result of they’re those that might pave the best way for brand new materials options,” Hvillum stated.
“Finally, it’s a political resolution that we as customers make [about] what we need to make investments our earnings in. So it truly is a disgrace that furnishings corporations don't give the patron extra choices when, for instance, selecting their subsequent couch.”
“We appeared so obsessive about longevity and infinite lifetimes on supplies, but it surely contradicts our need for natural supplies, and much more so, contrasts the best way we eat,” she added.
“There are such a lot of research that present what number of years on common we hold a settee earlier than our wants change and we purchase a brand new one. So I ponder why we’re so afraid to make use of natural options that work in a closed loop system. , as a substitute of selecting artificial supplies that sign they final endlessly when in reality they don't, however we expect they do,” the designer continued.
“Possibly we simply want to surrender having the ability to mildew one thing into any form we like,” Lloyd opined. “As a result of it's very tough to mannequin in a non-polymeric materials.”
The problem offered by foam and decreasing its prevalence hits on some elementary questions for designers, he argues.
“There's one other argument, which is that in case you make good sufficient issues, it should help. And I believe that's foolish. I believe we will't depend on individuals's tastes,” he stated.
“Possibly 5 % of the furnishings lasts as a result of it has a cultural worth that makes us instantly say to ourselves, 'that chair needs to be round in 100 years.'
“The Egg chair would possibly maintain up, however all the opposite merchandise on both aspect of the Egg chair that weren't superb — these are those that create the harm.”
“It's a knotty downside. And it's not straightforward to unravel,” Lloyd concluded. “However it's additionally a way more thrilling time to be a designer.”
Essential picture courtesy of Shutterstock.
Dezeen in depth
In the event you take pleasure in studying Dezeen's interviews, opinions and options, subscribe to Dezeen In Depth. Despatched out on the final Friday of each month, this article gives a one-stop store for the design and structure tales behind the headlines.